At the end of January, the European Parliament adopted the draft Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to make the Internet a safer place for European citizens by holding platforms to account. Negotiations with the European Council led to a provisional agreement at the end of April, a month after the two institutions reached an agreement on the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It aims to establish fair competition and limit the market power of large online platforms.

The DMA legislation endorses the principle that ” what is illegal offline must also be illegal online.”

The European Commission alone will have the power to monitor whether the very large online platforms and search engines comply with their obligations. The other players will be monitored by their home countries.

Stricter rules for large platforms and search engines

All online intermediaries providing services in the EU will be affected, but the obligations put in place will be proportional to the nature of the services and adjusted according to the number of users, with very large online platforms and very large online search engines, with more than 45 million users in the EU, facing more stringent requirements.

In particular, they will be required to ” analyze the systemic risks they generate and perform a risk mitigation analysis.”

This annual analysis will have to make it possible to remove illegal content, ensure respect for fundamental rights, avoid manipulations that have an impact on democratic processes and public security and protect minors.

For minors, specific protection measures will have to be put in place to ensure their safety online and targeted advertising will be prohibited.

Transparent recommendation systems

More transparency is required regarding the parameters of recommendation systems, so that users are better informed and choose accordingly. In addition, ” Very large online platforms and very large online search engines will have to offer users a content recommendation system that is not based on their profiling.”

Dark patterns, deceptive interfaces, and practices designed to mislead users are prohibited.

Online Marketplaces

The DSA will require marketplaces to be vigilant about the products or services that sellers offer on their online platform.

They will be required to post information about the products and services offered to better inform customers.

Special measures in case of crisis

In the event of a crisis, such as a threat to security or public health, a ” crisis response mechanism” will be put in place to measure the impact of very large platforms on this crisis.

Penalties

Online platforms and search engines may be fined up to 6% of their global turnover.

SMEs, on the other hand, will be given more time to implement the new regulations to support innovation in the digital economy.

Rapporteur Christel Schaldemose (S&D, DK) states:

“The legislation on digital services will set new international standards. Citizens will have better control over how their data is used on online platforms and by big tech companies. We have finally managed to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. For the European Parliament, the additional obligations on transparency of algorithms and misinformation are important steps forward. The new rules will also ensure greater choice for users and new obligations on targeted advertising, including a ban on targeting minors and restrictions on the collection of data for profiling purposes. “

The text of this provisional agreement will need to be finalized at the technical level and verified by legal-linguists before the Parliament and Council give their formal approval. It can then enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, and be applied 15 months later.

Translated from Le Conseil et le Parlement Européen concluent un accord politique provisoire concernant la législation des services numériques