Europe has nothing to be ashamed of in the face of global giants in…legislative innovation.
The European Parliament approved on Tuesday the European Union's major regulation to bring order to the "Wild West" of the Internet.
It consists of two texts presented by the Commission in December 2020 and negotiated for just over a year.
The Digital Markets Regulation (DMA) must stem the anti-competitive practices of key players such as Google, Microsoft or Meta (ex-Facebook).
More concerning for the user, the Digital Services Regulation (DSA) attacks online content by forcing - with a lot of fines - the platforms to respect the regulations of the member countries.
These two European regulations will have the advantage of not requiring transposition into the law of each country and will be applicable by the beginning of 2023 and this will change a lot in our daily life online.
More effective moderation
Section 14 of the Digital Services Regulations (DSA) on “Notice and Action Mechanisms” bolsters the fight against hate on social media.
"It was designed to assert the rights of users and improve the procedure for removing odious content such as incitement to hatred or insults," explains Jean-Sébastien Mariez of Momentum Avocats, a firm specializing in digital law.
Concretely, it forces platforms like TikTok, Instagram or Twitter to set up a system for reporting this hateful content "easy to access and use" and "notifications exclusively by electronic means" therefore without having to resort to a letter. formally and through explicit forms.
These same actors must, however, provide an acknowledgment of receipt of the report to the person or entity that has come forward.
In the event of refusal of the withdrawal, they will also have to justify their decision not to withdraw the problematic content while providing "information on the possibilities of appeal with regard to this decision".
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Finally, article 19 introduces the notion of “trusted flaggers” with increased power.
Clearly, an association or organization will have priority treatment of these reports if it has “specific expertise and skills for the purposes of the detection, identification and notification of illegal content”.
If this will accelerate withdrawals, it will not help to sanction the authors of this content against whom it will always be necessary to file a complaint.
More competition and more purchasing power
The DMA marks a change of philosophy in the fight against the abuse of large platforms.
Fines were falling at an increasingly high rate, but that was not enough to make the web giants bend.
No more need for complaints and lengthy legal proceedings, they will have to prove that they allow free competition with smaller players that they can no longer stifle.
Example: a hotel reservation platform, very well referenced on search engines, will no longer be able to impose exorbitant fees because it is in a situation of virtual monopoly.
And this is available in all online services such as e-commerce sites or the sale of plane or train tickets.
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Google will in particular be prohibited from showing any favoritism towards its own services in the results of its search engine, as it has been accused of doing with its online sales site Google Shopping.
Amazon will no longer be able to divert the data generated on its sites by its own to better compete with them and impose its prices.
Major cleaning operation on e-commerce
The DSA will oblige online sales sites such as Amazon, AliExpress or Wish to verify the identity of their suppliers before offering their products to the 450 million European consumers.
“This better protection will be the responsibility of the marketplaces, which will have to invest in the fight against counterfeits, defective toys or fake drugs,” points out lawyer Jean-Sébastien Mariez.
The text also provides for the prohibition of “dark patterns”, the misleading interfaces of a site where you have to click in a specific place to progress.
But also all the techniques of sales sites to lead the Internet user to a page by adding paid options.
The major platforms - more than 45 million active users - will be audited once a year by independent bodies and placed under the supervision of the European Commission.