The EU Regulation on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act, the 'DSA') is a comprehensive legal framework to regulate digital services and to tackle illegal activity online across the European Union. The DSA represents one of the main pillars of the EU's reform of the digital single market. It applies horizontally to online intermediaries operating in the EU, including online platforms such as social media, video-sharing platforms, online marketplaces, and search engines. The EU Digital Services Act: A Commentary serves as a reference work on the DSA, written by experts who have been closely involved in all steps of the law-making process, from the preparation of the proposal to the final negotiations, as well as its subsequent elaboration and application. This commentary provides a comprehensive article-by-article analysis that will allow the reader to navigate the provisions of this new, complex legal act. While being novel, the DSA does not enter a completely unchartered territory: numerous provisions draw inspiration from, or are applied together with, the provisions of other Acts and areas of EU law. This Commentary explores the jurisprudential origins of the provisions of the DSA and their articulation with other EU Acts, which will be essential for its interpretation and application. With a foreword by Maciej Szpunar, the First Advocate General at the EU Court of Justice, The EU Digital Services Act: A Commentary strikes a balance between a practical commentary and an academic analysis, and is aimed at legal practitioners, academics, and public authorities.

The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) provides a comprehensive framework regulating the provision of digital intermediary services in the EU internal market. It clarifies the conditions under which service providers can avoid being held liable for their users’ illegal content, establishes a set of harmonized duties they must follow, and sets broad safeguards for users’ rights. As an extensive article-by-article commentary, this book offers a comprehensive guide to the complex web of the DSA’s tightly intertwined provision. On a systemic level, it also contextualizes the DSA by exploring its relationship to other relevant legal instruments, such as those related to consumer protection, data protection, and private international law. Among the topics and issues addressed are the following: Liability and Content Moderation liability of online services which transmit, cache, or store illegal user content; rules on removing, reducing visibility of, or otherwise moderating content which is illegal or breaches terms of service; and acting against user content based on own investigations, governmental orders, or received notices, and rights and redress possibilities given to users. Service-Specific Obligations rules affecting profiling-based advertising, content recommendation systems, and user interface design; duties of platforms which disseminate user content, obligations of online consumer marketplaces, and exemptions for micro and small enterprises; novel transparency reporting duties, publication of databases and reports, and provision of access to platform data and algorithms; and duties of very large online platforms and search engines. Enforcement Framework competencies, tasks and powers of authorities and the EU Commission to monitor compliance, investigate infringements and impose sanctions; national, cross-border and European coordination, cooperation and enforcement mechanisms; and issues of jurisdiction and applicable law, and duties of providers established outside of the EU. Given the DSA’s scope, this book will be relevant to businesses of any size that handle user content. It will also be of great value to a broad audience of legal practitioners, public officials, civil society stakeholders, researchers, and content creators. All professionals working with user content management issues can use this book to gain valuable compliance insights.

Numerous questions were at the heart of parliamentary discussions over the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU's new regulatory framework for digital services in Europe. How should liberal democracies prevent illegal and harmful activities online and protect fundamental rights? How should digital service providers assess the impact of their technology on others? And how should technology companies moderate user-generated content? Principles of the Digital Services Act analyses the DSA's key provisions, dissecting its mechanisms and components, to understand the new law's likely impact on digital services in Europe and beyond. The book puts the new legal framework into its political, economic, and social contexts by explaining its grounding within the frameworks of economic regulation and human rights. It examines the European legislature's approach to the DSA, offering a detailed historical account of the legislative and pre-legislative process. The book argues that the envisaged regulatory system has the potential to boost trust in the digital environment. However, its mechanisms must be able to rely on the robust network of civil society organisations and the regulators should follow a set of principles. In this way, the DSA's goal can be achieved through means that are firmly aligned with respect for individual liberties, including the freedom of expression. Combining academic research with practical insights, Principles of the Digital Services Act offers a robust analysis into how to apply and further develop the most important tools of the DSA to rebuild trust in the digital environment.

This is the first book-length treatment of the advancement of EU global data flows and digital trade through the framework of European institutionalisation. Drawing on case studies of EU-US, EU-Japan and EU-China relations it charts the theoretical and empirical approaches at play. It illustrates how the EU has pioneered high standards in data flows and how it engages in significant digital trade reforms, committed to those standards. The book marks a major shift in how institutionalisation and the EU should be viewed as it relates to two of the more extraordinary areas of global governance: trade and data flows. This significant book will be of interest to EU constitutional lawyers, as well as those researching in the field of IT and data law.

THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT HAS NO BOUNDARIES. A new business model, product or technological service emerges all the time. Along with the facilitation and solutions brought by technological development, new problems, conflicts and litigation in social and economic relations also arise. Laws of several countries are not often able to keep up with the digital dynamism. Furthermore, there is not a consensus in international trade organisations on the concept of digital services and electronic commerce. That is the scenario in which the European Union has constantly developed rules to regulate the digital environment, ensuring and combining legal security and standardisation of rules with the practical advantages of these new social and trade relations, stimulating innovation and economic growth. While the WTO and the OECD have not reached a consensus on this matter, the EU has been influencing rules around the world and adding chapters on electronic commerce to its deep integration trade agreements with third countries. The book analyses EU regulations regarding the online environment such as personal data protection, electronic commerce, electronic contract, electronic signature and identification, advertising, digital services, consumer rights, and taxation. It addresses several decisions made by the Court of Justice and national courts of the EU. The influence of the EU in Mercosur is demonstrated through the analysis of laws and jurisprudence of Mercosur countries.

The Internet has brought about unprecedented changes to modern life, creating a connected society but also radically opening up the question of how to design and apply legal rules in a digital world. This thoroughly revised second edition provides an updated exploration of the latest developments and controversies in European Internet law.

The book starts with an analysis of what is new in the Digital Services Act. The aim is to see whether this new Regulation is appropriate both for not halting technological innovation and for addressing the risks that technological innovation poses to society and to the people who use digital services. The focal point is the risk of discrimination as people are often helpless in the face of the potential discriminations in the digital services sector. In particular, the book analyses how the Digital Services Act can make a concrete contribution to the protection against discrimination. To this end, it focuses on the responsibility of digital service providers and the fact that discrimination may also depend on the way in which algorithms and artificial intelligence systems are used. Therefore, a comparison is made between the Digital Services Act and the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act. The comparison discloses that the risk-based approach is the common thread followed by the EU in regulating the digital market. The book elaborates also on the practical implications of the risk-based approach. Highlighting advantages and limitations leading the author to conclude that the risk-based approach is the way forward only if the differences between risk and danger, the limits of law, and the limits of the tendency to humanise artificial intelligence systems are considered. With specific reference to the risk of discrimination, the need for a systemic and multi-level approach is highlighted, which reinforces the contribution that can be made not only by the Digital Services Act, but also by more general and cross-cutting legislation as those on data protection and unfair commercial practices.

This book addresses the interplay between the proportionality principle and EU digital law. Does EU digital law provide a fair balance of rights and interests? How does proportionality limit legislation in the digital economy? How can it be used to balance competing rights and interests? Diving into the dialectics of law and technology, the book analyses the relevance of the proportionality principle in regulating the digital world and as a vital tool for balancing competing rights and interests. The chapters analyse how conflicting rights and interests are resolved in EU digital law through the proportionality principle and critically reflect on its application. They scrutinise recent EU regulatory initiatives such as the GDPR, AI Act, Copyright Directive, DSA, and more. They reflect on the unique context of AI systems regulation, digital marketing, and data protection, illuminating the application and impact of proportionality in these arenas. Providing an in-depth examination of legal actors and real-life conflicts resolved by applying EU digital law, the book explains the pivotal role of the principle of proportionality in achieving an optimal balance of rights in our digital era.

The international COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact many people’s daily lives, and this natural phenomenon does not leave the world of media untouched either. In Central and Eastern Europe, media regulatory processes are often covert; as if governments are using the viral situation to achieve their unstated goals. Freedom of expression as a fundamental human right can quickly face severe restrictions in such cases, raising the problem of conflicting fundamental rights. Legislation, the functioning of the media system, and other media rights issues, have for several years been on the agenda in many Central and Eastern European countries. The exercise of exceptional powers has reached the region; extraordinary seems to become the norm. This edited volume aims to bring together the historical and contemporary challenges for the press, the news media, and our mediatised world. It explores the issue from the perspectives of legal history and existing law, as well as social and political science, identifying the intersections where past experience can help to address the social and regulatory challenges of the present. The main objective of the book is to make visible the links between the pandemic situation and media legislation (negative and positive), its history, its social impact, its effects on the exercise of fundamental rights, and the experience, research findings and academic positions in Central and Eastern Europe on past and current regulatory issues. It is a collection that will add greatly to contemporary research on Central and Eastern Europe, and will be of interest to researchers and scholars interested in the region, and in wider law, media and socio-political issues.