The European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) will vote on Tuesday 14 December in Strasbourg on the legislative proposal for a Digital Services framework (DSA) (see EUROPE 12835/7).
This parliamentary report, championed by Denmark’s Christel Schaldemose (S&D), represents the second digital pillar aiming - together with the DMA - to make the online environment safer and to curb the growing power of the big players in the sector.
“The DSA is the new fundamental law for the Internet. Platforms must now take seriously the injunctions and requests for information from national authorities. Harmonised EU-wide reporting procedures, allowing for quick and easy reporting of potentially illegal content online, are a success”, said Alexandra Geese (Greens/EFA, Germany).
Although the DSA is expected to be supported by the majority of IMCO committee members, some MEPs, such as Geoffroy Didier (EPP, France), regret that the text does not go “far enough”.
“I deplore the fact that the question of the hosting status of platforms is not on the table”, he said. “The same applies to the issue of combating illegal content online. I wonder about the weakness of the concrete tools that will allow platforms to better cooperate with the authorities. The ambitions fall far short of the political will initially stated”, he added.
The results of the vote will be known on Tuesday morning.
MEPs asked to vote on DMA
On the same day, MEPs meeting in plenary in Strasbourg will debate the text on Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the morning. The vote on the draft report by German MEP Andreas Schwab (EPP) will take place in the afternoon.
As a reminder, this report, which was adopted by the European Parliament’s IMCO Committee on 23 November in Strasbourg, should put an end to the “unfair” practices of gatekeepers (see EUROPE 12838/6).
The ‘Schwab’ report, as adopted in committee, defines which online actors are covered by the scope. This includes, among others, data intermediation services, social networks, online advertising services, and search engines. In addition, several other business areas were also added, such as online payment services like ‘ApplePay’ and ‘GooglePay’.
In addition, the quantitative thresholds introduced in the original proposal have been revised. Thus, to qualify as such, gatekeepers would have to provide a service in at least three Member States and have at least 45 million end-users and more than 10,000 business users per month. The turnover achieved is also part of the criteria.
Part of the DMA text also deals with the protection of minors and their data and with online advertising.
In addition, the text should also help to prevent the concentration of companies in the hands of the major players in the sector by introducing greater control over current and future acquisitions.
Gatekeepers who fail to comply with the rules could face fines ranging from 4 to 20% of their annual worldwide turnover.
A ‘European High Level Group of Digital Regulators’, which will facilitate cooperation between Member States and the European Commission, is also expected to be established.
In the EU Council, Member States adopted a political agreement in principle (‘general approach’) on the DMA and DSA on 25 November (see EUROPE 12840/10). France, which will take over the reins of the EU Council in early 2022, hopes that an agreement with the Parliament will be possible in the first half of next year. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)