Not surprisingly, a first inter-institutional discussion on online intermediation services (P2B) could already take place in mid-December. The EU Council is due to vote on 29 November, while the Internal Market Committee in the European Parliament will vote on 6 December. There is little doubt about the support of the Member States, following the support of the Permanent Representatives Committee on 16 November last (see EUROPE 12135).
The draft general approach prepared by the Austrian Presidency of the Council takes up the main lines of the proposal, which obliges platform intermediaries and search engines to be transparent about ranking parameters and to strengthen the possibilities of recourse for an aggrieved company.
The main change concerns the addition of an Article 12a which requires Member States to adopt and implement a system of "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" sanctions. The Austrian Presidency also introduces a two-step approach on Article 4, on suspension and termination: it requires platforms to state their reasons "before or at the time" of suspending content and to do so "30 days before" termination. The text also retains the idea of a system of collective redress (Article 12), which may be brought by associations, organisations and public bodies meeting a set of established criteria.
According to our information, the first trilogue could take place in mid-December, during the plenary session in Strasbourg. And a second one could already take place the following week (Green Week in Parliament). See the text of the general approach on page: https://bit.ly/2DScHct ]. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)