Digital Services Act approved by important parliament committee
The proposed European Digital Services Act (DSA) has taken a step forward. The European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee adopted the proposal with some additions. The parliament in plenum will vote on the DSA in January.
The committee wants for instance certain exemptions from DSA obligations for micro and small enterprises. The committee also stressed that online platforms should be prohibited from using deceiving or nudging techniques to influence users’ behaviours through “dark patterns” (tricks to make users do or buy things they did not intend to).
The full European parliament in will vote on the amended DSA proposal in the January session. The approved text will then become Parliament’s mandate for negotiations with EU governments, planned to start under the French presidency of the Council in the first semester of 2022.
The DSA will define responsibility and accountability rules for online platforms like social media and marketplaces. Very large online platforms will be subject to specific obligations due to the particular risks they pose in the dissemination of both illegal and harmful content.
The draft law aims to create a safer digital space in which users’ rights are protected, including through rules to tackle illegal goods, services or content online, enhance the accountability and transparency of algorithms, and deal with content moderation.
Including provisions on risk assessments, risk mitigation measures, independent audits and so-called “recommender systems” (algorithms that determine what users see) in the DSA are also meant to tackle harmful content (which might not be illegal) and the spread of disinformation.
The DSA is one of two proposals of the Digital Services Act package. The second proposal in the package is the Digital Markets Act.
The Digital Markets Act is a legislative proposal by the European Commission that intends to ensure a higher degree of competition in the European Digital Markets, by preventing large companies from abusing their market power and by allowing new players to enter the market.
The declared purpose of the DMA is to lay down harmonized rules, ensuring “contestable and fair markets in the digital sector across the Union where gatekeepers are present.”
Parliament Rapporteur Christel Schaldemose (S&D, DK) said: “We are now democratically reclaiming our online environment. The DSA is bringing EU tech regulation into the 21st century and it is about time.
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