EUEW Monthly Advocacy Meeting: Digital Services Act

2 September 2020

The second topic of the Advocacy Review on 2 September 2020 will be the upcoming proposal of a Digital Services Act (DSA), which includes a review of the Directive 2000/31/EC on e-commerce and a proposal of an ex-ante regulation on large platforms acting as gatekeeper.

E-commerce had an impact on electrical wholesalers as market operators with new business models entered the market leading to competitivity issues between brick & mortar shops and online shops, an uneven level playing field between European online shops and online marketplaces in third countries and unfair competition from direct imports of non-compliant products. Under the current regime online platforms are exempted from legal liability for the products and services offered on their platforms, which hinders effective enforcement of EU rules and values. The European institutions are in the process of identifying the issues, which need to be addressed in the legal proposals. The issues mentioned in the current debate concern the strengthening the enforcement of European rules and values, competition issues with huge systemic platforms, tackling the spread of illegal content online, transparency on data sharing and artificial intelligence and user/consumer protection. The future set-up of the rules for digital services will have an impact on electrical wholesalers whether they provide digital services or not.

The next e-meeting will take place from 10:00 to 11:00 CET on 2 September 2020, and is intended to give members an overview on the state of discussion at the European institutions before the legal proposals are published by the Commission, which is expected to be in the fourth quarter of 2020.