The European Union does indeed intend to impose additional obligations on the very large platforms, which capture at least 10% of the European population each month. This is revealed by the draft regulation on digital services (Digital Services Act or DSA), seen by EUROPE and due to be published on 15 December, together with another section on digital markets.
The Commission has made no secret of its intention to provide for stricter rules for very large platforms, but until now it has never communicated on how to define these operators. The draft text refers to services that reach an average of at least 45 million active recipients each month. It adds that the Commission may adapt this number by means of a delegated act when there is a 5% change compared to 2020, so that the number of users corresponds to one tenth of the European population.
Platforms falling under this definition would have to appoint one or more compliance officers, carry out an annual audit and comply with transparency requirements for recommendation systems.
Penalties of up to 6%
On governance, the draft regulation requires Member States to appoint a “digital services coordinator” within 2 months from the date of entry into force of the text. It provides for the setting up of a European committee made up of all these coordinators, which will in particular be able to support the coordination of joint investigations. For its part, the Commission will have the possibility to carry out on-site inspections at very large platforms.
The draft text refers to sanctions that are “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” (Article 42). As regards the amount of the fines, it suggests that they should be capped at 6% of the annual income or turnover of the company in the event of non-compliance.
According to the current version, the Regulation would become applicable 3 months after its adoption by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. After that, it will be reassessed every 5 years.
See the draft regulation: https://bit.ly/3oQIwpM (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)