News item | 04-07-2022 | 9:00 am
Better protection online for businesses and consumers, safer products, more competitive opportunities and room for digital innovations. Regulations in the digital economy will undergo major changes in the coming years. More than ten EU-wide laws have come into effect this year or are expected within the next three years. Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate) has therefore taken the initiative to regularly discuss the progress of these developments with the national and international companies and organizations involved.
In the past few weeks, three discussions took place with and about digital platforms. They and their users face many changes when it comes to responsibility and liability, consumer protection, product safety and new competition rules.
Minister Adriaansens (EZK) spoke separately with, among others, Dutch SMEs: smaller shops and catering entrepreneurs who are active online themselves and via platforms, with medium-sized Dutch platforms including bol.com, marktplaats.nl, huisbezorgd.nl, organizations that represent startups and with the largest international companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Meta.
“It is good to talk to companies and organizations themselves about the major innovation in the European digital single market. This is important to give entrepreneurs of all sizes growth opportunities, to promote fair competition and to better protect consumers. There are and will be many changes. I would like to hear from entrepreneurs and consumers where even more improvements in regulations are possible and what they encounter with doing business digitally,” said Minister Adriaansens.
Examples of major changes are the upcoming Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). There are also proposals for the AI Act and the Data Act. In the spring of 2022, a lot of legal changes have already been made in terms of digital consumer protection. Such as the Right to updates, a ban on fake reviews and mandatory transparency about search results and personal offers.
Before the summer, the European Parliament is expected to vote on the introduction of the DMA and DSA from early 2024.
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
The DMA will provide additional market and merger supervision and competition rules for the ten to fifteen largest online platforms worldwide with a so-called gatekeeper position. These are platforms that users can hardly ignore.
This group of online platforms also has to comply with various prohibitions and obligations. Examples include a ban on favoring one’s own services, the ability to transfer data from one platform to another, and the ability to remove pre-installed apps. There will also be a notification requirement to assess mergers and acquisitions.
Digital Services Act (DSA)
The DSA consists of rules governing the responsibility and liability of Internet service providers, hosting companies, online platforms, search engines and marketplaces for the activities through their services.
For example, online marketplaces will soon have to obtain more information about the companies (traders) that sell products or services via their platform. The DSA will also soon oblige providers of hosting and platform services to combat illegal online content and to inform users more extensively about this. Digital providers should therefore better explain the removal of information or user accounts. In addition, the DSA also offers the possibility to better protect citizens against disinformation and fake news and better protection of fundamental and human rights.