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Virtual fever, the new pandemic? News and Trends in Intellectual Property, Communications, Media, Technology, Art and Outer Space Law Conference

11 Oct - 12 Oct 2021

Session information

Digital markets and online platforms on the crossroad of electronic communications regulation and competition

Committee(s)

Communications Law Committee (Lead)

Description

In the context of the EU’s digital strategy, the European Commission is conducting a significant review of the rules governing the online environment, which have been applied for the last two decades in this region. Since the adoption of the e-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC), the emergence of new technologies and innovative digital services has led to substantial benefits to society, but also to challenges and risks which need to be addressed. For this purpose, in December 2020 the Commission published two proposals for a Regulation: the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This package introduces a new harmonised regulatory framework for digital services and online platforms. The DSA is focused on intermediary services - such as online marketplaces, social media, or app stores- and imposes asymmetric obligations on providers of digital services based on their size and market impact (with heavier regulation for systemic platforms). The DSA establishes, for instance, new notice-and-action mechanisms for illegal content, transparency obligations regarding online advertising or content-recommendation algorithms, rules on the traceability of business users and an enhanced oversight system of platforms operations. On the other hand, the DMA intends to avoid unfair business practices and abuses by core platform providers acting as gatekeepers between business users and end users. To this end, it imposes ex ante obligations for platforms qualifying as gatekeepers empowers the Commission to conduct market investigations and imposes very high fines (10% of the total worldwide annual turnover) and behavioural and structural remedies in the case of systematic non-compliance. During this session, we will analyse the changes brought by these legislative initiatives and its interplay with ex post remedies, focusing on the new set of rules and obligations for the providers of digital services and the impact on their day-to-day operations, the related rights for ends-users and business users, and the supervision and enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance.

Session / Workshop Chair(s)

Laurent De Muyter Jones Day, Brussels, Belgium; Vice Chair, Communications Law Committee
Blanca Escribano Be law & ethics LLP, Madrid, Spain; Co-Chair, Communications Law Committee

Speakers

Nils Börnsen Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Berlin, Germany
Professor Frank Maier-Rigaud ABC Economics, Berlin, Germany
Agapi Patsa Google, Brussels, Belgium
Anne Vallery WilmerHale, Brussels, Belgium; Member, Communications Law Committee Advisory Board
Rebekka Weiß Bitkom, Berlin, Germany