European Parliament rapporteurs issue draft reports on Digital Services and Markets Acts

Six months after the European Commission put forward its proposals for a Digital Services Act (DSA) and a Digital Markets Act (DMA), Members of the European Parliament appointed as rapporteurs have unveiled their draft proposals to fellow committee members.

A key talking point in upcoming European Parliament discussions will be the scope of the DMA and the criteria used to assess whether platforms are effective gatekeepers – whereby they would be covered by the Regulation’s ‘do’s’ and don’ts’. Rapporteur Andreas Schwab’s draft report for the IMCO Committee (Internal Market) aims to narrow down this scope, focusing only on the largest platforms in Europe while many other MEPs have issued proposals to expand the scope of application of the rules. HOTREC considered that the scope of the DMA should address the major role played by dominant digital market players, including Booking.com which has a market share of almost 70% when it comes to intermediated online hotel bookings.

On the DSA, MEP Christel Schaldemose’s draft report in the IMCO Committee tends to strengthen requirements towards platforms to ensure that “what is illegal offline should also be illegal online”, proposing a new article laying down stricter conditions for the exemptions of liability specifically targeting online marketplaces, and by strengthening the obligation on the traceability of traders. HOTREC welcomes progress on the DSA made so far and sees it as a crucial instrument to support better regulation of the short-term rental sector.