Digital Services Act/Online Safety Bill Service Scope/Categorisations Discussion

“Does size matter, or is functionality more important?”

The EU and the UK are the first jurisdictions to publish legislative proposals to address harms arising from content accessed on digital platforms. Both the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the EU and the Online Safety Bill (OSB) in the UK propose a tiered system of regulation for the online services they will regulate, reflecting, among other things, the regulatory principle of proportionality and aiming to concentrate regulatory resources efficiently. One can expect newly developed regimes elsewhere to follow this approach.

The EU and UK thresholds are based on user numbers (in the DSA) or a combination of user numbers and functionalities (in the OSB), and the category for service determines which obligations it must meet in areas such as due diligence, reporting obligations, and regulatory oversight. Setting the right threshold criteria (applying them consistently) is therefore critical.

CERRE will organise a discussion on this topic to explore how the scope thresholds could be set, how they might develop, and what criteria are appropriate to achieve the relevant policy objectives. This session would inform debates in both the EU and the UK around the categorisation of services and consequent regulatory obligations.

The event will be organised online on Thursday 13 January 2022 between 15:00-16:30 pm CET. The event will be a private session, accessible to CERRE members only. If you’re interested in joining the CERRE community, contact us at info@cerre.eu.

Please contact Claire-Marie Healy, Senior Project Manager, Tech, Media, Telecom & Mobility, for more information at cmh@cerre.eu.