Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) debated, on Monday 21 June, the draft reports on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see EUROPE 12717/17) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12732/12).
While MEPs welcomed the work done by the rapporteurs - Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany) for the DMA and Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Denmark) for the DSA - there is still a long way to go before a compromise is reached.
Digital Markets Act
The draft report, presented by Mr Schwab on Monday, aims to strengthen the definition of ‘gatekeepers’ to ensure that the DMA can target platforms that play an important role in the internal market due to their size and impact.
“This is the crux of the matter: how do we define a ‘gatekeeper’? The Commission’s proposal does not go far enough. We need to look at the bigger picture and go further, define new criteria for ‘gatekeepers’, values, thresholds, look at the number of users of the platforms”, said Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D, Germany), shadow rapporteur. This view seems to be shared by most parliamentary groups.
Furthermore, in addition to the definition of ‘gatekeeper’ itself, the rapporteur supports the fact that the European Commission should be allowed to ask national authorities to support market investigations for the designation of ‘gatekeepers’.
Still on the subject of cooperation, the draft report proposes the creation of a High Level Group of Digital Regulators to facilitate cooperation and coordination between the Commission and Member States in their enforcement decisions, in the interest of a consistent regulatory approach.
Evelyne Joron (Identity and Democracy, France) called the idea “necessary”, while Adam Bielan (ECR, Poland) called it “useful”. Ms Joron also called for fines and the possibility of dismantling gatekeepers in case of non-compliance.
On the other hand, other MEPs, such as Andrus Ansip (Renew Europe, Estonia), felt that giving more weight to Member States would cause “a loss of the interest in this text, which is based on harmonisation”. “If we lose that, we will have a fragmented Europe”, he added.
Finally, the IMCO Committee members also returned to the notion of time limits for notification and removal of online content. While the value of a proposal along these lines seems to be recognised by MEPs, some warn that precautions should be taken to ensure that the reduction of time limits is not at the expense of small and medium-sized enterprises.
“We understand the idea of reducing processes, but efficiency must not be sacrificed for speed. Businesses, including small ones, will have to be able to adapt to the new rules”, insisted Mr Bielan.
Digital Services Act
Following the first debate on the DMA, the IMCO Committee members also worked on the second part of the legislative package, the Digital Services Act.
Christel Schaldemose’s approach to this issue is based on three pillars: consumer protection, the fight against targeted online advertising and the control of illegal online systems, algorithms and content.
“The updating of these regulations is necessary. A trustworthy environment for growth and competitiveness is needed. It is an opportunity to regain control. All illegal practices offline must be illegal online”, Ms Schaldemose said.
On consumer protection, the draft report proposes, among other things, to increase the number of obligations and conditions for the exemption of platforms from legal liability online.
While some groups welcomed the idea, others expressed concern. “I fear that with strict legislation we will create rules that only the digital giants can deal with and that this will end up punishing all other companies”, warned Christian Democrat Arba Kokalari (EPP, Sweden).
This analysis is shared by German MEP Svenja Hahn (Renew Europe). She advocated for certain exemptions to be granted on request by the Commission. “Many platforms like Wikipedia could be affected by this text”, she said.
Furthermore, while each group seems to be in favour of working on targeted online advertising, the problem lies in the approach. “This is one of the ‘hot potatoes’ of the dossier. Consumers should be able to choose who uses their data”, said Ms Schaldemose, whose text advocates for online advertising to be switched off by default and for users to be able to choose whether to use it.
Some groups, such as the Greens/EFA and The Left, were in favour. On the other hand, Ms Kokalari said that default disabling could be “ harmful for European businesses”. “This will be a point of fierce negotiation”, summarised The Left group’s co-chair, German MEP Martin Schirdewan.
Lastly, a great deal of attention was paid to the management of illegal content online. On this subject, MEPs will have to find a balance between the need not to allow illegal content to proliferate online and the need not to resort to the massive and indiscriminate deletion of content, including legal content.
MEPs will return to these issues after the summer break and hope that an agreement can be reached during the next French Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2022. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)