The Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council presented to the members of the EU Council’s Working Party for Competitiveness and Growth, on Thursday 9 September, its compromise text on the first two chapters of the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12784/4).
Compared to the previous version, several changes have been made and “harmonised rules for safe, predictable and trustworthy online trade” have been incorporated in the new version of the document.
The Presidency’s text proposes that service providers in the online sales sector should be obliged to inform all purchasers of a product detected as illegal in the previous 6 months and to provide the identity of the offending trader as well as the possible recourses.
In the event that a provider does not have the means to contact consumers directly, information about the illegal products and services withdrawn, the identity of the retailer and the existing recourses should be made publicly available and easily accessible on its interface.
The text also states that online sales service providers are obligated to keep the information received by merchants for 6 months.
This obligation, the text says, would not affect potential obligations to retain certain content for longer periods, based on other EU or national legislation.
No additional national requirements
The Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council also wants Member States not to adopt or maintain additional national requirements on matters within the scope of the DSA.
“This would affect the direct and uniform application of fully harmonised rules applicable to intermediary service providers in accordance with the objectives of this Regulation”, the text underlines.
In terms of definitions, in addition to clarifying the concepts of ‘consumer’, ‘provider’ and ‘online market’, the compromise text also focuses on the concept of ‘place of establishment of a provider’.
The interpretation of the Court of Justice of the EU is the reference in this respect. Thus, it is the actual exercise of an economic activity by means of a fixed installation for a period of time - whether fixed or not - that should be taken into account.
Under the Digital Services Act, the place of establishment would not be the place where the technology supporting a site is located, but where it carries out its economic activity. In case of difficulty in defining it, the place where the centre of activities of a provider is located would be chosen in this capacity.
See the compromise text: https://bit.ly/3tuu61O (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)