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On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted the rules governing digital services and digital markets in Europe. The growth of digital markets and the services’ market has taken place in a tumultuous way, dominant positions have been formed, cartels have been created and the public is sometimes the victim of fraudulent actions. For this reason, the new EU rules are inspired by the principles of consumer and citizen protection and of an open and competitive market. The new provisions come into force no later than January 1, 2024 and do not require national laws for their application.
Brussels, 6 July 2022
The New Rules for Digital Service in Europe (DSA)
The rules governing the provision of digital services in the EU have remained largely unchanged since the adoption of the e-Commerce Directive in 2000, while digital technologies and business models continue to evolve rapidly and new societal challenges are emerging, such as the spread of counterfeit goods, hate speech and disinformation online. Against this backdrop, on 15 December 2020, the European Commission tabled a new legislative proposal on a Digital Services Act (DSA) to update the current EU legal framework governing digital services.
The DSA is a horizontal instrument that aims to create a safer and trusted online environment. It puts in place a framework of layered responsibilities targeted at different types of services (i.e, intermediary services, hosting services, online platform services, and very large online platforms services) and proposes a set of harmonised EU-wide asymmetric obligations to ensure transparency, accountability and regulatory oversight of the EU online space.
Following protracted interinstitutional negotiations, Parliament and Council reached a provisional political agreement on the DSA in April 2022. The provisional agreement is subject to approval by the Council and the Parliament voted on Tuesday the agreement.
Read the provisional agreement voted on Tuesday by the European Parliament
Do you need a summary or a briefing? Write us.
The New Rules for Digital Markets in Europe (DMA)
Since the Internet appeared, alongside the physical market for products and the financial market mediated by financial and banking companies, a new digital market has emerged that has rapidly absorbed an immense volume of trade.
Online platforms have emerged – such as search enginse, social media and e-commerce platforms – which are playing an increasingly important role in social and economic life.
As European standards for digital platforms have remained essentially unchanged since the adoption of the e-commerce directive in 2000, some large platforms are increasingly seen as intermediaries between businesses and consumers, with economic power and control over entire digital ecosystems, which makes competition is very difficult for rivals and new market entrants and for the competition authorities to take adequate action.
For this reason, the EU has decided to update the regulatory rules and today the European Parliament voted on a compromise text with the EU Council.
These are harmonized rules aimed at regulating the behavior of digital platforms which act as gatekeepers between business users and their customers in the EU. This approach involves moving from ex post antitrust intervention to ex ante regulation and enshrines in EU law a set of ex ante rules for the designation of gatekeepers and the design of ex ante obligations and prohibitions that will fundamentally change how large corporations digital platforms can operate in the EU.
Following protracted interinstitutional negotiations, Parliament and Council reached a provisional political agreement on the DMA in April 2022. The provisional agreement is subject to approval by the Council and the Parliament voted on Tuesday the agreement.
Read the provisional agreement voted Tuesday by the European Parliament
Do you need a summary or a briefing? Write us.
