The qualified trust service provider – legal certainty on the Internet

Abstract

The text discusses the trust service provider, a legal figure with precedents in the certification service provider (European Union) and the trusted third party (United States), regulated for the first time by Regulation (EU) 910/2014 of 23 July on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, repealing Directive 1999/93/EC. It starts from the lack of confidence of consumers and companies in electronic commerce and from the solutions attempted so far. It sets out the definitions in Article 3 of the Regulation, the distinction between trust service provider and qualified trust service provider, subject to prior authorisation, to ETSI technical standards and to auditing by the supervisory body, and the different legal effects of the qualified electronic signature and of the electronic seal. It also addresses trust lists, mutual recognition among Member States and the impact of the Regulation on Spanish Law 59/2003. It maintains that the European regulated solution fits legal systems of Latin tradition better than the free provision of services regime, and argues for the worldwide extension of the figure, based on ETSI standards and on supervisory bodies in every State.