After a debate lasting almost 2 hours the day before, the European Parliament voted on Tuesday 20 October on three own-initiative reports on digital services which enshrine the principle that ‘what is illegal offline is also illegal online’. At the time of the going to press, MEPs had voted on the few amendments put to the vote, but still had to proceed to the final vote.
During the debate, several MEPs used the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ to motivate their action. The documentary seeks to demonstrate that ‘if you aren’t paying for something, then you’re the product’.
“This is exactly the idea we are fighting against in trying to increase transparency and consumer protection”, said one of the rapporteurs, Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba (S&D).
Three separate reports
Overall, the plenary had few surprises in store, as these three reports had already been thoroughly voted on in committee (see EUROPE 12569/5, 12566/7).
The legislative initiative resolution drafted by Mr Agius Saliba, for example, calls on the European Commission to improve the ‘notification and action’ procedure. The European institution is also expected to include digital service providers in its future initiatives, when these are established in non-Member States and target consumers or users in the EU.
The resolution also introduces the ‘Know Your Business Customer’ principle, according to which platforms must control and prevent fraudulent companies from using their services to sell illegal or dangerous products and content. It also calls for ex ante rules for digital sectors and special responsibilities for online marketplaces to ensure consumer safety.
See the resolution prepared by Mr Agius Saliba: https://bit.ly/31p4tTv
The own-initiative legislative resolution drafted by Tiemo Wölken (S&D, Germany) also covers many of these issues, such as improving the notification and action procedure.
During the debate, Mr Wölken welcomed the European Parliament’s proposals for “a system that can help control the loading of content without filtering”.
The European Parliament recommends that in the event of notification or withdrawal of content, users should be informed and be able to seek redress through a national dispute resolution body. He added that “the final decision should be taken by an independent judiciary and should not be left to private companies”.
The proposals for a European entity to monitor and impose fines and for a gradual ban on advertising targeting were adopted, despite amendments rejecting them.
See the resolution prepared by Mr Wölken: https://bit.ly/3jhS0qC
The non-legislative own-initiative resolution drafted by Kris Peeters (EPP, Belgium) goes in the same direction (see EUROPE 12566/7): https://bit.ly/34fo7TV
On the docket: DMA and DSA
These three resolutions are intended to guide the legislative proposals on digital services that the European Commission intends to propose on 2 December. The Commission is preparing the Digital Services Act (DSA) to update the e-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC), and another on digital markets (DMA) which will tackle very large online platforms (see EUROPE 12582/13).
Margrethe Vestager spoke about the latter initiative during the plenary debate. “This legislation will specifically target the major digital ‘gatekeepers’ defined by objective criteria setting out a clear list of dos and don’ts, in full compliance with international obligations. It will also provide a framework for conducting market investigations to tackle digital markets that are likely to fail or to give rise to the emergence of new gatekeepers”, said the Commission’s Executive Vice-President. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)