Information society services are not restricted solely to services concerned with on-line contracting but also, in so far as they represent an economic activity, cover services that are not paid for directly by those who receive them, such as offering on-line information or commercial communications, or providing tools that allow for research, access to and retrieval of data.
Le rapport de la Commission au Conseil et au Parlement sur l'état du marché interne des services dans l'UE révèle que de nombreux services ne sont pas disponibles au-delà des frontières en raison de faiblesses dans l'application des principes du marché unique14.