In the IT Services and Outsourcing market we will continue to see customer side lawyers trying to push the envelope on the range and scope of liability clauses – seeking to recover traditionally excluded losses like loss of profit etc. Meanwhile, on the supplier side, the rise of cloud services deals and the integration risk that more diverse/multi-sourced delivery models give rise to will see a continuation of the trend for suppliers to pass responsibility and risk to the customer. It is too early to tell how those rival pressures will play out. What is certain is that a lot of time and effort will be spent finding a balance between them.
Meanwhile, the threats to the business models of Internet service providers and platforms from ultra pro-privacy advocates and, potentially, the people behind the EU’s digital single market initiative will continue. Whether those threats finally start to harm consumers’ access to all that the Internet can offer remains to be seen – maybe next year we will start to find out.
{b}Toby Crick is a Partner at Bristows LLP{/b}
