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Digital Services Act - IMCO Report published

Tuesday, 13 October 2020
digital uncategorised

The Report of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament (IMCO) on the Digital Services Act is now available:

The Report, which incorporates the Opinions provided by several other parliamentary committees, is expected to be formally adopted during the upcoming Plenary session of the European Parliament of 19-23 October. The final report by the European Parliament will provide a strong political signal to the European Commission as it prepares legislative proposals for the end of 2020 on the DIgital Services Act, ex ante rules on systemic operators with a gatekeeper role, and a New Competition Tool to address structural competition issues

The report largely reflects issues raised in HOTREC's position paper on the Digital Services Act. The European Parliament's IMCO Committee report calls for:

  • Avoiding a 'one-size-fits-all' set of rules and differentiated rules for platforms, including specific rules for online marketplaces and short-term rental platforms;
  • Confirmation that Member States should be able to take measures to protect the public interest, including inter alia public policy, combating housing shortages and preventing tax avoidance;
  • A coordinated data-sharing framework between platforms and national, regional and local authorities;
  • A level playing field between the platform economy and the offline economy;
  • Stronger measures to swiftly tackle illegal content online and clarify notice-and-take-down procedures;
  • At the same time, guarantees to ensure that platforms content removal policies are transparent and fair on business users;
  • More transparency on algorithms, recommendation systems and digital advertising;
  • The ex ante regulation should ensure fair trading conditions applicable to all operators, including possible additional requirements and a closed list of the positive and negative actions such operators are required to comply with and/ or forbidden to engage in, while ensuring that additional obligations on such platforms do not create additional requirements for business users;
  • Safeguards to prevent 'systemic' platforms from mobilising vast amounts of data to expand to new markets;
  • Not to address the rights of platform and collaborative economy workers in the context of the Digital Services Act.