Newly Adopted E-Business Law Presented

The meeting was dedicated to a newly adopted E-Business Law that regulates the fields of electronic documents, electronic identification and trust services in electronic transactions and moderated by Miloš Stojković from Živković & Samardžić Law Office and the Chair of AmCham’s Digital Economy Regulatory Stream. Guests were Tatjana Matić, State Secretary, and Milan Dobrijević from Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications.

Tatjana Matić pointed out that adoption of E-Business Law is important for several reasons. Firstly, this law represents not just the state’s progress towards digital transformation, but also implementation of core reforms in the private sector and society as well, keeping in mind that digitization takes a high place on the agenda of the current government. “The law was created as a result of the cooperation between the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications and the private sector, and represents a reaction to modern challenges. Some of novelties are simplified procedures, reduced paperwork and easier communication between natural and legal entities and the state”, said the State Secretary. It was also emphasized that the drafting and adoption of by-laws was underway.

Milan Dobrijević presented core technical details of this law and stated that it contains provisions that broaden the scope of electronic commerce in relation to European regulations. As emphasized, the subjects of E-Business Law are:

• Electronic documents;
• Electronic Identification;
• Trust services in electronic transactions.

A novelty in regulating the use and validity of an electronic document refers to the possibility of converting a paper document into electronic form and vice versa, whereby the electronic document cannot be challenged by legal force only because it is in electronic form. Provisions of this law also regulate the issues of submitting an electronic document between public authorities and parties, as well as the submission of an electronic document between public authorities.

The law regulates electronic identification, which determines the identity of a natural or legal person when they want a service or content to be accessible electronically. Electronic identification is done through different identification schemes (electronic ID, electrical signature, user name and password etc). The advantages of regulating this field are increased ability to use electronic services on an eGovernment site and other portals and avoiding the need for multiple registration on different portals.

The last area regulated by the E-Business Law is trust services – electronic signature, electronic stamp, timestamp, electronic delivery, website authentication and electronic storage.