FAQs

EDiMA, the European Digital Media Association, is the first industry alliance of Internet and new media companies which provide new media platforms offering European consumers a wide range of online services, including e-content, media, E-commerce, communications and information/search services. EDiMA serves as a European trade association and government representation entity, on behalf of its members, on issues that impact their business and the new media sector. As a unique coalition, EDiMA aims to become the voice of the Internet and new media sector in Europe.

Founded in March 2000, EDiMA was set up by 15 European companies to join forces in a trade organisation to develop a stable economic and legal environment for their business. EDiMA has since engaged with policy-makers and other stakeholders on a range of issues impacting new media including e-commerce, music licensing, consumer protection, content regulation, intellectual property legislation and policy developments. The launch of EDiMA demonstrates that European new media companies wish to speak with a single voice on issues related to the protection and the use of copyrighted works on the Internet.

EDiMA's full membership features a wide range of new media companies operating at European level, including: Amazon EU, Apple, Baker & Mackenzie LLP, eBay, Expedia, Orange, Google, MIH Group, Microsoft, Nokia, and Yahoo!Europe.

As a unique coalition of the most well-known companies acting in the online content market, EDiMA is the leading new media industry representative in negotiations and discussions with national and EU policy makers and relevant industry stakeholders in Brussels and across Europe. EDiMA represents the interests of the new media sector in Europe in policymaking, standards developments and industry co-operative activities through comprehensive information and advocacy about the potential for economic and artistic development and growth in the new digital industries in Europe. In conjunction with its legislative engagement, the association also serves as a source and developer of relevant industry research and is available to the press for the provision of industry comment and feedback on issues and news affecting the sector.

EDiMA's mission is to contribute to policy and regulatory developments ensuring that European consumers are provided with the benefits offered by the new media sector. Legislative decisions and developments may impose substantial technical and financial burdens on new media companies, and may adversely affect the growth of the market. EDiMA therefore acts in order to influence the resolution of these issues in a way that preserves the interests of its members and the new media community.

EDiMA has been involved and engaged on a variety of issues at European level which have affected, or had the potential to significantly impact, the new media sector. In the past few years, EDiMA's involvement in the European debate on content online, contract law, copyright issues, licensing for digital content, E-Commerce, and liability of intermediaries has demonstrated an expertise that makes it one of the major interlocutors to the EU institutions on these issues. Recent examples of successful EDiMA work and campaigns include the association's involvement with the development of the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2007/65/EC), the Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I; Regulation 864/2007), the Commission's Communication on Creative Content Online (COM(2007)836) and a long-standing position as one of the leading industry representatives on the issue of online licensing in Europe.

EDiMA follows and is involved with regulatory and policy developments affecting the new media sector and specifically those which currently relate to content online, intellectual property rights in the online environment, the liability regime for Internet intermediaries, and consumer rights issues related to E-Commerce and the use of online platforms. EDiMA maintains an ongoing dialogue with relevant EU officials, including those within the European Commission, Member State Permanent Representations, and the European Parliament. Currently, this includes discussions and engagement on such as issues at the Commission's initiatives on Content Online, liability of intermediaries as potentially impacted by the Telecoms Package and consultation on the E-Commerce Directive, the proposed Consumer Rights Directive from DG SANCO, and the ongoing debate on barriers to E-Commerce as presented by the current licensing regime and form of collective rights management in Europe.

Membership in EDiMA is limited* to new media companies with operations in Europe. Prospective EDiMA members must submit an application for membership which indicates an adherence to EDiMA's mission and aims and which must be approved by the EDiMA Board of Directors. For more information about EDiMA membership, please contact the EDiMA Secretariat.

The EDiMA Secretariat is managed by Policy Action Ltd., a public affairs firm with offices in London, Brussels, Dublin and Washington DC. The Secretariat is run by Jeremy Rollison and executive directors Lucy C. Cronin and Wes Himes. EDiMA's current officers are James Waterworth, President (Nokia), Claire Thwaites, Vice President (Apple), and Katarzyna Lasota Heller, Vice President (MIH).