) , formation = , type =

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...

, status = registered association;
Registered lobbyist with the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

and

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, purpose = representing the interests of its members , headquarters = Lichtstrasse 43h , location_city =

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, location_country =

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, coords = , region_served =

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, membership = 1,100 companies (2021) , leader_title = Chief executive
(german: Vorstands-Vorsitzender) , leader_name = Oliver J. Süme , main_organ = Board of directors (german: Präsidium) , num_staff = 70 (2021) , num_volunteers = , budget = , subsid =

DE-CIX DE-CIX (Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange) is an operator of carrier- and data-center-neutral Internet Exchanges, with operations in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. All DE-CIX activities and companies ...

, website = eco – Verband der Internetwirtschaft e.V () is the German

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

and

. The association defines itself as a special interest group (german: "Interessenvertretung") of Internet oriented businesses, and has the goal of promoting technologies, shaping framework conditions and representing the interests of its members towards policy makers and in national and international committees. With more than 1,100 member companies across 70 countries, eco is the largest Internet industry association in Europe, . eco is focused principally on the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Internet industry An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...

, and since 1997 has been active in

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...

for Internet legislation, establishing legal precedents on Internet-related issues, and operating the

Internet exchange point Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of IP networking, allowing participant Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are generally located at places with preexisting ...

s, which are among the largest in the world.

History

Founded on June 26, 1995 in Bonn, the name "eco" was chosen as an abbreviation of "electronic commerce." Its first task was the organisation and management of DE-CIX, which it undertook in the same year. eco's political work began in 1997 when it assisted in the formulation of the .

DE-CIX

eco is the organizational parent of

, the "German Commercial Internet Exchanges"). The first and largest of the DE-CIX exchanges is the one which eco established in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

in 1995. , DE-CIX Frankfurt is the largest Internet exchange in the world by volume of bandwidth, producing an average of 7 terabits per second, and third-largest by number of participating networks, after

Sao Paulo SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...

and Jakarta. And , DE-CIX maintains 29 IXPs throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.

Political lobbying

The group is registered as a political lobbying group by the German

and the transparency register of the

and

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. The ''European transparency register'' states the amount of eco's influencing work that focuses on EU policy makers was equivalent to the work of two full-time lobbyists in 2019, for which ''eco'' paid between and .

Anti-spam congresses

eco has hosted annual German Anti-Spam Congresses since 2003, which have been integrated into the German "Internet Security Days" since 2011.

Cloud computing

The establishment of ''EuroCloud Deutschland_eco e. V.'' took place in 2009. ''EuroCloud Germany_eco e. V.'' is an association of the

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

industry in Germany and part of the European ''EuroCloud'' network with the ''StarAudit''.

Cyber defense

The ''Advanced Cyber Defense Center'' (ACDC) is a center in which 28 partners from 14 European countries, coordinated by eco and funded by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, jointly improve the security of networks and systems against botnets and malware. It opened in 2013. Another eco office was opened in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in 2016. The center operates five principle projects: *A centralized clearing house, acting as a single point of contact for data storage and analysis. *A support center, delivering structured information to stakeholders and affected end users *An analytic function focusing on the detection and mitigation of infected websites. *An analytic function focusing on the detection of botnets and network anomalies *The development of tools for identification and removal of malware from end user devices.

Awards

eco annually presents the ''eco Internet Awards'' to companies which have made important contributions to the German Internet industry, and publishes numerous white-papers and industry reports.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{refend

External links

eco - Association of the Internet Industry
official website International trade associations Trade associations based in Germany Organizations established in 1995 German companies established in 1995 Internet technology companies of Germany Stub-Class Germany articles Science articles needing translation from German Wikipedia Government and politics articles needing translation from German Wikipedia