CELEX: 
Language: en
Date: 2020-07-15 00:00:00
Title: COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) …/... laying down the technical specifications of data requirements for the topic "ICT usage and e-commerce" for the reference year 2021, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council

EUROPEAN
                            COMMISSION
                                                     Brussels, 15.7.2020
                                                     C(2020) 4700 final
              COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) …/...
                                         of 15.7.2020
   laying down the technical specifications of data requirements for the topic "ICT usage
   and e-commerce" for the reference year 2021, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152
                      of the European Parliament and of the Council
                                 (Text with EEA relevance)
EN                                                                                        EN
 ---pagebreak---                  COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) …/...
                                               of 15.7.2020
     laying down the technical specifications of data requirements for the topic "ICT usage
     and e-commerce" for the reference year 2021, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152
                            of the European Parliament and of the Council
                                       (Text with EEA relevance)
   THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
   Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
   Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council
   of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of
   business statistics1, and in particular Article 7(1) and Article 17(6) thereof,
   Whereas:
   (1)     To ensure the correct implementation of the topic "ICT usage and e-commerce" listed
           in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152, the Commission should specify the
           variables, the measurement unit, the statistical population, the classifications and
           breakdowns and the data transmission deadline in order to produce data on ICT usage
           and e-commerce which is comparable and harmonised between Member States.
   (2)     Member States should provide metadata and quality reports for the national statistical
           business registers and all business statistics. It is therefore necessary to define the
           arrangements for, content of and deadlines of those reports.
   (3)     The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the
           European Statistical System Committee,
   HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
                                                 Article 1
   For the topic "ICT usage and e-commerce", as referred to in Annex I to Regulation (EU)
   2019/2152, Member States shall transmit the data according to the technical specifications of
   data requirements for the reference year 2021 in accordance with the Annex to this
   Regulation.
                                                 Article 2
   The annual metadata report for the topic "ICT usage and e-commerce", as referred to in
   Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152, shall be transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) by
   31 May 2021.
   The annual quality report for the topic "ICT usage and e-commerce", as referred to in Annex I
   to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152, shall be transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) by 5
   November 2021.
   1
           OJ L 327, 17.12.2019, p. 1.
EN                                                   1                                             EN
 ---pagebreak---                                                Article 3
   This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in
   the Official Journal of the European Union.
   This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
   Done at Brussels, 15.7.2020
                                                 For the Commission
                                                 The President
                                                 Ursula VON DER LEYEN
EN                                                 2                                                EN
 ---documentbreak---                             EUROPEAN
                            COMMISSION
                                                     Brussels, 15.7.2020
                                                     C(2020) 4700 final
                                                     ANNEX 1
                                          ANNEX
                                            to the
              COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) xxx
   laying down the technical specifications of data requirements for the topic "ICT usage
   and e-commerce" for the reference year 2021, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152
                      of the European Parliament and of the Council
EN                                                                                        EN
 ---pagebreak---                                                                       ANNEX:
                           Technical specifications of data requirements for the topic "ICT usage and e-commerce"
  Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                     Variable
  Mandatory variables (i)   for all enterprises:    (1)      main economic activity of the enterprise, in the previous calendar year
                                                    (2)      average number of employees and self-employed persons, in the previous calendar year
                                                    (3)      total value of turnover (excluding VAT), in the previous calendar year
                                                    (4)      number of employees and self-employed persons or percentage of the total number of
                                                             employees and self-employed persons who have access to the internet for business
                                                             purposes
                      (ii)  for enterprises with    (5)      internet connection: use of any type of fixed line connection
                            employees and self-
                            employed persons        (6)      use of the following social media: social networks
                            who have access to      (7)      use of the following social media: enterprise’s blog or microblogs
                            the internet for
                                                    (8)      use of the following social media: multimedia content sharing websites or apps
                            business purposes:
                                                    (9)      use of the following social media: wiki based knowledge sharing tools
                                                    (10)     web sales of goods or services via the enterprises’ websites or apps (including extranets),
                                                             in the previous calendar year
                                                    (11)     web sales of goods or services via e-commerce marketplace websites or apps used by
                                                             several enterprises for trading goods or services, in the previous calendar year
                                                    (12)     EDI-type sales (receipt of orders placed via Electronic Data Interchange messages) of
                                                             goods or services, in the previous calendar year
                                                    (13)     use of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software
                                                    (14)     use of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to manage the collection,
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 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                    Variable
                                                           storing and making available information on customers to various business functions
                                                   (15)    use of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to manage the analysis of
                                                           information on customers for marketing purposes (such as setting prices, sales
                                                           promotion, choosing distribution channels)
                                                   (16)    buying cloud computing services used over the internet
                                                   (17)    use of interconnected devices or systems that can be monitored or remotely controlled
                                                           via the internet (Internet of Things)
                                                   (18)    use of Artificial Intelligence technologies performing analysis of written language (text
                                                           mining)
                                                   (19)    use of Artificial Intelligence technologies converting spoken language into machine-
                                                           readable format (speech recognition)
                                                   (20)    use of Artificial Intelligence technologies generating written or spoken language (natural
                                                           language generation)
                                                   (21)    use of Artificial Intelligence technologies identifying objects or persons based on images
                                                           (image recognition, image processing)
                                                   (22)    use of machine learning (such as deep learning) for data analysis
                                                   (23)    use of Artificial Intelligence technologies automating different workflows or assisting in
                                                           decision-making (Artificial Intelligence based software robotic process automation)
                                                   (24)    use of Artificial Intelligence technologies enabling physical movement of machines via
                                                           autonomous decisions based on observation of surroundings (autonomous robots, self-
                                                           driving vehicles, autonomous drones)
                      (iii) for enterprises using  (25)    maximum contracted download speed of the fastest fixed line internet connection in the
                            any type of fixed line         ranges: [0 Mbit/s, < 30 Mbit/s], [30 Mbit/s, < 100 Mbit/s], [100 Mbit/s, < 500 Mbit/s],
                            internet connection:           [500 Mbit/s, < 1 Gbit/s], [≥ 1 Gbit/s]
EN                                                                      2                                                                          EN
 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                    Variable
                      (iv) for enterprises which (26)      value of web sales of goods or services, or percentage of total turnover generated by web
                           had web sales, in the           sales of goods and services, in the previous calendar year
                           previous       calendar (27)    percentage of value of web sales generated by web sales to private consumers (Business
                           year:                           to Consumers: B2C), in the previous calendar year
                                                   (28)    percentage of value of web sales generated by web sales to other enterprises (Business to
                                                           Business: B2B) and to public sector (Business to Government: B2G), in the previous
                                                           calendar year
                                                   (29)    web sales to customers located in the own country, in the previous calendar year
                                                   (30)    web sales to customers located in other Member States, in the previous calendar year
                                                   (31)    web sales to customers located in the rest of the world, in the previous calendar year
                      (v)  for enterprises which   (32)    percentage of value of web sales of goods or services generated by sales via the
                           had web sales of                enterprise’s websites or apps, in the previous calendar year
                           goods and services
                           via the enterprise’s    (33)    percentage of value of web sales of goods or services generated by sales via e-commerce
                           websites or apps and            marketplace websites or apps used by several enterprises for trading goods or services, in
                           via e-commerce                  the previous calendar year
                           marketplace websites
                           or apps used by
                           several enterprises for
                           trading goods or
                           services, in the
                           previous calendar
                           year:
EN                                                                      3                                                                          EN
 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                       Variable
                      (vi) for enterprises which (34)         percentage of value of web sales generated by sales to customers located in enterprise’s
                             had web sales to                 own country, in the previous calendar year
                             customers located in
                             at least two of the      (35)    percentage of value of web sales generated by sales to customers located in other
                             following geographic             Member States, in the previous calendar year
                             areas: own country,      (36)    percentage of value of web sales generated by sales to customers located in the rest of
                             other Member States              the world, in the previous calendar year
                             or rest of the world, in
                             the previous calendar
                             year:
                      (vii) for enterprises which     (37)    difficulties experienced when selling to other Member States: high costs of delivering or
                             had web sales to other           returning products, in the previous calendar year
                             Member States, in the
                             previous calendar        (38)    difficulties experienced when selling to other Member States: difficulties related to
                             year:                            resolving complaints and disputes, in the previous calendar year
                                                      (39)    difficulties experienced when selling to other Member States: adapting product labelling
                                                              for sales to other Member States, in the previous calendar year
                                                      (40)    difficulties experienced when selling to other Member States: lack of knowledge of
                                                              foreign languages for communicating with customers in other Member States, in the
                                                              previous calendar year
                                                      (41)    difficulties experienced when selling to other Member States: restrictions from
                                                              enterprise's business partners to sell to certain Member States, in the previous calendar
                                                              year
                                                      (42)    difficulties experienced when selling to other Member States: difficulties related to the
                                                              VAT system in other Member States (such as uncertainty regarding VAT treatment in
                                                              different countries), in the previous calendar year
                      (viii) for enterprises which    (43)    value of EDI-type sales of goods or services or percentage of the total turnover generated
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 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                   Variable
                           had EDI-type sales, in         by EDI-type sales of goods or services, in the previous calendar year
                           the previous calendar  (44)    sales via EDI-type messages to customers located in enterprise’s own country, in the
                           year:                          previous calendar year
                                                  (45)    sales via EDI-type messages to customers located in other Member States, in the
                                                          previous calendar year
                                                  (46)    sales via EDI-type messages to customers located in the rest of the world, in the previous
                                                          calendar year
                      (ix) for enterprises buying (47)    buying e-mail as a cloud computing service
                           cloud computing
                           services used over the (48)    buying office software (such as word processors or spreadsheets) as a cloud computing
                           internet:                      service
                                                  (49)    buying finance or accounting software applications as a cloud computing service
                                                  (50)    buying Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software applications as cloud computing
                                                          service
                                                  (51)    buying Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software applications as a cloud
                                                          computing service
                                                  (52)    buying security software applications (such as antivirus program, network access
                                                          control) as cloud computing service
                                                  (53)    buying hosting the enterprise’s database(s) as a cloud computing service
                                                  (54)    buying storage of files as a cloud computing service
                                                  (55)    buying computing power to run the enterprise’s own software as a cloud computing
                                                          service
                                                  (56)    buying computing platform providing a hosted environment for application
                                                          development, testing or deployment (such as reusable software modules, application
                                                          programming interfaces (APIs)) as a cloud computing service
EN                                                                     5                                                                          EN
 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                    Variable
                      (x)  for enterprises using   (57)    for energy consumption management (such as “smart”-meters, -thermostats or -lamps
                           interconnected                  (lights))
                           devices or systems
                           that can be monitored (58)      for premises’ security (such as “smart”-alarm systems, -smoke detectors, -door locks
                           or remotely controlled          or -security cameras)
                           via the internet        (59)    for production processes (such as sensors or RFID tags that are monitored/controlled via
                           (Internet of Things):           the internet and used to monitor or automate the process)
                                                   (60)    for logistics management (such as sensors monitored/controlled via the internet for
                                                           tracking products or vehicles in warehouse management)
                                                   (61)    for condition-based maintenance (such as sensors monitored/controlled via the internet
                                                           to monitor maintenance needs of machines or vehicles)
                                                   (62)    for customer service (such as “smart” cameras or sensors monitored/controlled via the
                                                           internet to monitor customers’ activities or offer them a personalised shopping
                                                           experience)
                                                   (63)    for other purposes
                      (xi) For enterprises using (64)      for marketing or sales (such as chatbots based on natural language processing for
                           Artificial Intelligence         customer support, customer profiling, price optimization, personalized marketing offers,
                           technologies,                   market analysis based on machine learning)
                           referring specifically
                           to           mandatory (65)     for production processes (such as predictive maintenance based on machine learning,
                           variables (18) to (24),         tools to classify products or find defects in products based on computer vision,
                           purpose of use:                 autonomous drones for production surveillance, security or inspection tasks, assembly
                                                           works performed by autonomous robots)
                                                   (66)    for organisation of business administration processes (such as business virtual assistants
                                                           based on machine learning and/or natural language processing, voice to text conversion
                                                           based on speech recognition for document drafting, automated planning or scheduling
                                                           based on machine learning, machine translation)
EN                                                                      6                                                                          EN
 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                  Variable
                                                 (67)    for management of enterprises (such as machine learning to analyse data and help make
                                                         investment or other decisions, sales or business forecasting based on machine learning,
                                                         risk assessment based on machine learning)
                                                 (68)    for logistics (such as autonomous robots for pick-and-pack solutions in warehouses,
                                                         route optimization based on machine learning, autonomous robots for parcel shipping,
                                                         tracing, distribution and sorting, autonomous drones for parcel delivery)
                                                 (69)    for ICT security (such as face recognition based on computer vision for authentication of
                                                         ICT users, detection and prevention of cyber-attacks based on machine learning)
                                                 (70)    for human resources management or recruiting (such as candidates pre-selection
                                                         screening, automation of recruiting based on machine learning, employee profiling or
                                                         performance analysis based on machine learning, chatbots based on natural language
                                                         processing for recruiting or supporting human resources management)
  Optional variables  (i)  for enterprises with  (1)     provision of portable devices that allow a mobile connection to the internet using mobile
                           employees and self-           telephone networks for business purposes
                           employed persons
                           who have access to    (2)     having a website
                           the internet for
                           business purposes:
                      (ii) for enterprises that  (3)     number of employees and self-employed persons, or percentage of the total number of
                           provide their                 employees and self-employed persons, using a portable device provided by the enterprise
                           employees and self-           that allows internet connection via mobile telephone networks for business purposes
                           employed persons
                           portable devices that
                           allow a mobile
                           connection to the
                           internet using mobile
                           telephone networks
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 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                     Variable
                            for business purposes:
                      (iii) for enterprises having  (4)     enterprise’s website has a description of goods or services, price information
                            a website:
                                                    (5)     enterprise’s website has online ordering or reservation or booking, such as shopping cart
                                                    (6)     enterprise’s website has a possibility for visitors to customise or design online goods or
                                                            services
                                                    (7)     enterprise’s website has tracking or status of orders placed
                                                    (8)     enterprise’s website has personalised content on the website for regular/recurrent visitors
                                                    (9)     enterprise’s website has links or references to the enterprise's social media profiles
                      (iv) for enterprises which    (10)    number of e-commerce marketplaces via which the enterprise had web sales in the
                            had web sales via e-            previous calendar year: one, two, more than two
                            commerce
                            marketplace websites
                            or apps used by
                            several enterprises for
                            trading goods or
                            services, in the
                            previous calendar
                            year:
                      (v)   for enterprises which   (11)    information if more than half of the turnover from e-commerce marketplaces came from
                            had web sales via two           only one e-commerce marketplace, in the previous calendar year
                            or more e-commerce
                            marketplaces, in the
                            previous calendar
                            year:
                      (vi) For enterprises using    (12)    use of Artificial Intelligence software or systems developed by own employees
                            Artificial Intelligence
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 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional Scope (filter)                      Variable
                             technologies,                   (including those employed in parent or affiliate enterprises)
                             referring specifically  (13)    use of commercial Artificial Intelligence software or systems modified by own
                             to mandatory                    employees (including those employed in parent of affiliate enterprises)
                             variables (18) to (24):
                                                     (14)    use of open-source Artificial Intelligence software or systems modified by own
                                                             employees (including those employed in parent or affiliate enterprises)
                                                     (15)    use of commercial Artificial Intelligence software or systems purchased ready to use
                                                             (including examples where it was already incorporated in a purchased item or system)
                                                     (16)    use of Artificial Intelligence software or systems developed or modified by contracted
                                                             external providers
                      (vii) For enterprises which    (17)    consideration of using of Artificial Intelligence technologies, referring specifically to
                             did not use any                 mandatory variables (18) to (24)
                             Artificial Intelligence
                             technologies,
                             referring specifically
                             to mandatory
                             variables (18) to (24):
                      (viii) For enterprises which   (18)    Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because the costs seem too high
                             did not use but
                             considered to use       (19)    Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because there is a lack of relevant expertise
                             Artificial Intelligence         in the enterprise
                             technologies,           (20)    Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because of incompatibility with existing
                             referring specifically          equipment, software or systems
                             to mandatory
                                                     (21)    Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because of difficulties with availability or
                             variables (18) to (24):
                                                             quality of the necessary data
                                                     (22)    Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because of concerns regarding violation of
                                                             data protection and privacy
EN                                                                        9                                                                           EN
 ---pagebreak---   Mandatory/ optional    Scope (filter)                         Variable
                                                          (23)      use of artificial intelligence technologies not used because of lack of clarity about the
                                                                    legal consequences (such as liability in case of damage caused by the use of Artificial
                                                                    Intelligence)
                                                          (24)      Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because of ethical considerations
                                                          (25)      Artificial Intelligence technologies not used because they are not useful for the enterprise
  Measurement unit       Absolute figures, except for characteristics related to turnover in national currency (thousands) or percentage of (total) turnover
  Statistical population Activity coverage:
                         NACE Sections C to J, L to N and group 95.1
                         Size class coverage:
                         Enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons. Enterprises with less than 10 employees and self-employed
                         persons may be covered optionally
  Breakdowns             Activity breakdown
                         for calculation of national aggregates:
                                aggregates of NACE sections and group C+D+E+F+G+H+I+J+L+M+N+95.1, D+E
                                NACE sections: C, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N
                                NACE divisions: 47, 55
                                aggregates of NACE divisions: 10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17+18, 19+20+21+22+23, 24+25, 26+27+28+29+30+31+32+33
                                aggregate of the divisions and groups: 26.1+26.2+26.3+26.4+26.8+46.5+58.2+61+62+63.1+95.1
                         for contribution to the European totals only
                                NACE sections: D, E
                                NACE divisions: 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 45, 46, 61, 72, 79
                                NACE group: 95.1
                                aggregates of NACE divisions: 10+11+12, 13+14+15, 16+17+18, 22+23, 29+30, 31+32+33, 58+59+60, 62+63, 69+70+71,
EN                                                                               10                                                                           EN
 ---pagebreak---                             73+74+75, 77+78+80+81+82
                    Size class of number of employees and self-employed persons: 10+, 10-49, 50-249, 250+; optional: 0-9, 0-1, 2-9
  Data transmission 5 October 2021
  deadline
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