Finally, yesterday, December 15, the European Commission published the previously announced proposal for the Digital Services Act, as well as the proposal on digital markets (link to related article).
These new regulations:
- better protect consumers and their fundamental rights online;
- establish a strong framework for transparency and accountability for online platforms; and
- They promote innovation, growth, and competitiveness within the single market.
According to the published press release, the Digital Services Act will introduce a series of new, EU-wide harmonized obligations applicable to digital services, carefully scaled according to the size and impact of those services, such as:
- rules regarding the removal of illegal goods, services, or content online;
- safeguards for users whose content has been mistakenly removed by the platforms;
- new requirements for platforms to adopt risk-based measures to prevent abuse of their systems;
- far-reaching transparency measures, including those related to online advertising and the algorithms used to recommend content to users;
- new powers to oversee the operation of platforms, for example, by facilitating researchers' access to key data from those platforms;
- new rules on the traceability of businesses in online markets, to help identify sellers of illegal goods or services;
- an innovative cooperation process among public authorities to ensure effective enforcement throughout the single market.
Platforms that reach more than 10% of the EU population (45 million users) will be considered systemic and will be subject not only to specific obligations to manage their own risks but also to a new supervisory framework. This new accountability framework will consist of a council of national digital services coordinators, with special powers granted by the Commission regarding the supervision of very large platforms, including the power to impose sanctions directly on them.
The European Parliament and the member states will now discuss these Commission proposals under the ordinary legislative procedure. Once these rules are adopted, they will be binding throughout the EU. We will need to keep an eye on any changes that may be made during the legislative process. In any case, the effort to bring some order to the digital world could not be more appropriate.
Author: Juan José Caselles