17 février 2024
Metaverse February 2024 – 1 de 4 Publications
As of today (17 February 2024), the full applicability of the Digital Services Act (DSA) is activated. A new era of regulation begins for providers of intermediary services.
Although the DSA is a regulation, which directly applies within each EU Member State and needs no transformation into national local law, the EU Members States are obliged to designate their Digital Services Coordinator as new national supervision and enforcement authority and align their existing national laws with the DSA. In this overview, we summarize the status of 12 national EU Member States’ laws complementing the DSA on national level and look at the following questions:
Many thanks to our European colleagues at Taylor Wessing and our partner law firms who contributed to this overview:
For further information on the DSA, join or webinar on 20 February 2024 and check out our DSA overview website.
The Digital Services Coordinator Act (Koordinator-für-digitale-Dienste-Gesetz) was already issued on 23 October 2023.
It includes changes to
At federal level, the draft implementation Law of 31 January 2024 has been published on 31 January 2024 and must now go through the parliamentary process.
Most important changes include modifications to
At local level, the Flemish authorities have adopted an implementing Decree on 26 January 2024. Changes include modifications to the Flemish Decree of 27 March 2009 on radio and television broadcasting.
No implementing national law yet
The draft Loi visant à sécuriser et réguler l’espace numérique (SREN Bill), whose latest version is dated 17 October 2023, is currently under discussion in the parliamentary process and still subject to changes. The draft notably includes changes to:
The draft German implementing act named Digital Services Act (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG)), published on 22 December 2023 aims to adapt the national legal framework to the DSA’s requirements.
The DDG is currently being discussed in the parliamentary process and may still be amended. In particular, the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) has published its current Position to the DDG draft (dated 02 February 2024) suggesting certain changes.
It is expected that the DDG will be adopted in spring 2024.
Most important changes include
Act CIV of 2023 on Certain Rules for Internet Intermediary Services „DSA Executive Act”.
The DSA Executive Act has been published on 22 December 2023 and enters into force on 17 February 2024.
Changes to the
No implementing national law has been enacted so far, except for Art. 15 of Legislative Decree n. 123/2023, which has designated the Digital Service Coordinator for Italy and entrusted it with the power to impose the penalties provided for under Art. 52 DSA.
In addition, on 12 October 2023, draft bill n. 965 has been presented before the Senate aiming at boosting coordination in the digital sector in Italy. While the draft bill does not aim at directly implementing the DSA, it would institute a committee for digital regulation in charge of reporting annually to the Italian Parliament on the application of digital policies, including DSA enforcement and monitoring activities. At this stage it is not possible to foresee whether the bill will reach approval stage.
Finally, it is flagged that Italian D.lgs. n. 70/2003 implementing EU Directive 2000/31 still includes the implementing version of Art 12-15 EU Directive 2000/31, which have been deleted by the DSA. In principle, therefore, such Articles shall be removed from D.lgs. n. 70/2003. However, no initiative has been registered on this respect so far.
Draft Act on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and the Council of 19 October 2022 on a single market for digital services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Regulation Implementation Act), which went to consultation on 14 July 2023 (opportunity to express public opinion). The latest version of the draft is currently under discussion in the legislative process, and subject to changes.
The draft brings changes to
The legislation process is still at the pre-Parliamentary stage, before publication of the official draft legislation.
On 5 January 2024, the newly appointed Ministry of Digitalization published the assumptions of the DSA implementation into the Polish legal system (Assumptions).
According to the Assumptions the DSA shall be implemented by amending the existing acts:
Portugal currently has not drafted any specific regulation to implement the DSA at a national level and there are no regulations currently in the draft or parliamentary process that introduce amendments to national law further to the DSA’s requirements.
Amendment to the Media Services Act No. 264/2022 Coll. The Act proposal was published in January 2024. The legislative process is currently pending (status is available here). The draft wording may still be revised during the legislative procedures (the Ministry is currently processing public opinions that were received during the procedure). The Act proposal should also amend the E-Commerce Act No. 22/2004 Coll. and the Audiovisual Services Act No. 40/2015 Coll.
Slovakian law implementing the DSA should be effective on 01 September 2024.
Spain currently has not drafted any specific regulation to implement the DSA at a national level and there are no regulations currently in the draft or parliamentary process that introduce amendments to national law further to the DSA’s requirements.
Also, the Government has not yet published its Annual Legislative Plan for 2024, where it lists the different laws and regulations that it plans on drafting and discussing throughout the year. Previous years have seen this plan be published as late as May, hence probably in the coming weeks there will be a more definite answer regarding any Government plans in this regard.
The Austrian Communications Authority (KommAustria) is designated as Digital Services Coordinator.
The Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM) is designated as Digital Services Coordinator.
Competent authorities also include the Consumer Protection Authority (DGCCRF) and the Data Protection Authority (CNIL).
The German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA)) is designated as Digital Services Coordinator.
According to the DDG draft, the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information is the competent authority for the enforcement of Art. 26 para. 3 DSA (profiling) and Art. 28 para. 2 and 3 DSA (protection of minors). However, it is currently being discussed whether state data protection supervisory authorities should instead be the competent authorities in this regard.
The National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) is designated as Digital Services Coordinator pursuant to Section 110 Point i) of Act CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and on the Mass Media.
The Italian media regulator AGCOM (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle comunicazioni) is designated as Digital Services Coordinator.
The Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante), the Italian Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (“AGCM”) and the AGCOM remain competent with respect to data protection, competition, consumer and telecommunication related issues and are under the obligation to support the Digital Services Coordinator’s action under the DSA. In the future, a protocol may be adopted to coordinate collaboration among those authorities.
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument en Markt (ACM)) as the Digital Services Coordinator.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP)) for the enforcement of Art. 26 para. 3 and Art. 28 para. 2 DSA.
The President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE President) is designated as Digital Services Coordinator.
The UKE President is an already existing body whose competences so far included in particular the analysis, regulation and control of the telecommunications market. The UKE President is a legally separate and independent body with a 5-years office period, proposed by the Prime Minister and then appointed by the lower chamber of the Parliament (Sejm) .
Additionally, part of the duties as related to the application of DSA, will be performed by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
On 8 February 2024, the Council of Ministers approved a decree-law designating ANACOM (Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações) as the competent authority and coordinator of digital services in Portugal.
The law also defines the Portuguese Media Regulatory Authority (ERC) as the competent authority for media and other media content and the Portuguese General Inspectorate for Cultural Activities (IGAC) as the competent authority for copyright and related rights, thus complying with EU Regulation 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council on a single market for digital services.
Additionally, under the scope of the DSA, the Portuguese Data Protection Authority (CNPD) will be the competent authority to supervise the compliance of rules concerning data protection matters.
The already existing Slovakian Media Services Council (Rada pre mediálne služby) is proposed to be the main body responsible for the application and enforcement of the DSA. This body already has competences in the field of video-sharing platforms and content-sharing platforms.
The National Commission on Markets and Competition (“CNMC”) was designated as Digital Services Coordinator on January 24 2024 by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Civil Service.
The CNMC will be in charge of ensuring the coordination, supervision and coherent enforcement of the DSA in Spain.
Additionally, under the scope of the DSA, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (“AEPD”) will be the competent authority to supervise the compliance of rules concerning data protection matters.
There will be full cooperation between the CNMC and the AEPD, which will allow for the efficient enforcement of the DSA and help avoid any incoherent overlapping between the DSA and the GDPR.
The draft also includes provisions that are currently being criticized as overlapping with or going beyond the DSA, or being otherwise incompatible with EU law such as
Additional obligation for VLOPs to implement charters for the monitoring and support of moderators or give the “French center of expertise for digital platform regulation” access to the data referred to in Art. 40 para. 12 DSA.
The current draft of the Dutch implementation act brings only a few minimal adjustments to the laws mentioned above and creates some procedural obligations:
No specific changes as to date, though based on the Assumptions the planned legislation will include the following:
As mentioned above, there are currently no draft regulations being discussed in Portugal in regards to the law and respective amendments to national law. However, predictably, Decree-Law no. 84/2021 of 18 October 2021 regulates consumer rights in the purchase and sale of digital goods, content and services, transposing EU Directives 2019/771 and 2019/770 will have to be amended notably in order to introduce relevant provisions further to the obligations imposed on EU Member States by the DSA.
The current wording of the Act proposal regulates mostly procedural issues, in particular
The draft law also cancels the current national regulation of the limitation of ISP liability (that was implemented pursuant to the EU E-Commerce Directive 2000/31).
There are currently no draft regulations being discussed in Spain in regards to amendments to national law.
However, predictably, Law 34/2002 (on infosoc services and e-commerce) will have to be amended notably in order to introduce the relevant provisions further to the obligations imposed on EU Member States by the DSA. Such as introducing the relevant infringements and associated penalties.
As can be seen, some national implementation acts have not yet been completed and are still work in progress. It remains to be seen whether the respective national legislators will finalize the implementation of the DSA’s national regulatory structures in a timely manner. It will also be of great interest for affected stakeholders, when and in what way the supervisory authorities as well as the European Commission will actually drive enforcement of the DSA.
Download: PDF "National Implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA)"
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