Last week, CERRE held its flagship Digital Platforms Summit. This event represented the culmination of two research projects providing recommendations to help the Commission implement two of the EU’s most important digital laws, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act. CERRE researchers presented 7 (8) reports to help the EU deliver a safer, fairer, more innovative digital Europe. Representatives from a diverse spectrum of stakeholders shared forthright dialogue about CERRE’s proposals.
Safeguarding Minors and the DSA
Recommendations for the Commission
The event kicked off with Research Fellow Michele Ledger presenting recommendations on the DSA, in particular safeguarding of minors.
The research focused on two aspects of child protection: age assurance and age-appropriate design. In relation to assurance, Ledger described the “delicate balancing exercise” involved in a “fair and feasible” implementation of the DSA’s requirements for protecting minors, and pointed to the unanswered questions about how these rules should be implemented:
“We will need … to decide about age assurance technology: who should be setting the norms, what should be the role of regulators be in that respect- and the role of the European Commission in particular?” – Michele Ledger, Research Fellow and CRIDS Research Centre, University of Namur
Ledger emphasised the risk that different EU countries would take different approaches, undermining the EU single market and called for a proactive response from policy makers. She also raised the possibility of mandatory age assurance at the EU level for content where harmfulness is well-evidenced and widely acknowledged – such as for pornographic content.
In relation to age-appropriate design, Ledger outlined a novel framework developed by Research Fellow and co-author Miriam Buiten which platforms should adopt to effectively protect children. The research provides concrete examples of good and bad practices. Again, Ledger emphasised the importance of EU-wide consistency:
“The enforcement of the rules will require a high level of coordination between the European Commission, Digital Service Coordinators and other regulators involved at the national level. And certainly, there will be a need for regular regulatory dialogue between enforcers and platforms.” – Michele Ledger
The research highlighted the need for ongoing dialogue between the Commission, regulators and the regulated platforms. Ledger highlighted that “living”, regularly updated online documents, could help facilitate transparency and harmonisation, with particular reference to the Commission’s upcoming Guidelines on Article 28(1). Ledger finished by flagging the regulatory gaps which still remain in the EU’s online safety framework, noting that there remain services that are “completely outside” the scope of EU regulations.
National Regulators and the DSA
Academic Director Alexandre de Streel then took the stage alongside Maria Donde, Director of International Affairs at Coimisiún na Meán, to discuss the Irish regulator’s leading role in the implementation of the DSA and the broader online safety framework. Ms Donde described the variety of tools that the regulator has sought to leverage to create a “thriving, safe and diverse media landscape” ranging from enforcement-centric, investigative and platform supervision tools to media literacy and journalistic initiatives. In particular, the two discussed efforts to empower the public to take an active role in making the framework as effective as possible, including direct engagement with schools and educational institutions in order to provide materials to parents and children:
“Making sure that the public was aware of the rights that the DSA gave them was an approach that we focused on from the very beginning.” – Maria Donde, Director of International Affairs, Coimisiún na Meán
The conversation also brought to light the challenges, in terms of time and resources, entailed in ensuring co-operation between the Commission, Digital Service Coordinators, and the wider body of stakeholders involved in successful implementation. Ms Donde highlighted the need for national and EU regulators to collaborate in public communication about the positive impact of the DSA. Professor de Streel echoed this point:
“It’s easier to adopt a law than to change social norms; that’s probably one of the big challenges of both the laws that we are looking at today – that they are requiring all of us to change our practices.” – Alexandre de Streel, Academic Director and University of Namur
Protecting Children in the Age of the DSA
The fireside chat was followed by a vibrant panel discussion, “Protecting Children in the Age of the DSA”, led by Research Fellow Miriam Buiten. Leanda Barrington-Leach (5Rights), Martin Harris Hess (DG CNECT), Tim Stok (Tencent), Karen McAuley (CnaM) and co-author Michele Ledger explored the challenges in protecting the best interests of minors on online platforms. Martin Harris Hess, Head of Sector for the Protection of Minors at DG CNECT, provided a first glimpse at the Commission’s forthcoming Guidelines on Article 28(1):
“What we try to do is to go through a user journey, from the governance of the platform to account set up, content moderation, recommender systems, age verification, age assurance, generative AI, user support measures… Under each chapter we have a set of concrete recommendations that we would expect platforms to take depending on the type of service they provide.” – Martin Harris Hess, DG CNECT, European Commission
Participants discussed progress in creating a media landscape where children’s rights are protected, the roles played by regulators, platforms, and parents in encouraging safer online environments. Leanda Barrington-Leach noted that:
“What we’ve seen with the Digital Services Act and this conversation today, is that there is a real willingness to get to the root of the problem- we know that platforms can and will change in response to good regulation…” – Leanda Barrington-Leach, Executive Director, 5Rights
Systemic Risk in Digital
Drawing the discussion on the DSA to a close, a fireside chat entitled “Guardrails for the Digital Sphere” featured Academic Co-Director Sally Broughton Micova and Athina Tsitsou (Deputy Head of Unit, DG CNECT). The conversation centred on the DSA’s approach to systemic risk in digital services, in particular, the effectiveness of the DSA in improving transparency. Ms Tsitsou described how the Commission has employed information-gathering tools provided by the DSA to learn more about the measures that platforms have in place to mitigate risks to, among other areas, election integrity, civic discourse, and the online safety of minors. The two discussed how these information-gathering tools were encouraging the iterative improvement of systemic risk reporting on the part of platforms.
Past, Present and Future Perspectives on the DMA
Digital Markets in Europe
The second half of the day commenced with a keynote address on DMA Implementation and Competition Law from Axel Desmedt, President of the Belgian Competition Authority. The address charted the factors that led to the development of Europe’s ex-ante regulatory regime, including the role played by CERRE. Emphasising Europe’s status as a crucial market for the global technology industry, Mr Desmedt urged EU policy makers to weather the current geopolitical context and to continue to pursue the goals that drove the development of the DMA.
“Europe should stick to its principles as one of the biggest markets for the big tech services. Europe should not move away from a regulatory approach that is evidence-based; which has been democratically adopted, which is now being implemented and enforced with due respect for the substantive and procedural rights of the stakeholders involved – including the rights of gatekeepers.” – Axel Desmedt, President, Belgian Competition Authority
Recommendations for DMA Implementation
Research Fellow Giorgio Monti then presented CERRE’s recommendations for implementing the DMA. Drawing on an extensive survey of stakeholders, recommendations spanned the implementation process, institutions, the role of the Commission, and initiatives for wider regulatory cooperation. Key recommendations included more frequent and expanded multilateral dialogues between the Commission, gatekeepers and business users; a “living document” approach to compliance reporting on the part of gatekeepers; increased substantive guidance on compliance from the Commission; the prospect of a DMA team as an independent entity within the Commission; and greater transparency and stakeholder engagement associated with EU Level regulatory cooperation initiatives.
“A more living instrument type of compliance report might be helpful to understand the state of process, in particular regarding certain obligations – but also more generally in communicating to business users and consumers what their expectations are as compliance evolves” – Giorgio Monti, Research Fellow and Tilburg Law School
These recommendations provided ample fodder for the panel discussion “DMA Implementation Unpacked” which followed the presentation of the research. The panellists, Chiara Caccinelli (Arcep & BEREC), Gary Davis (Apple) Carolina Lorenzon (Media for Europe) and Aurélien Mähl (DuckDuckGo), reflected on the past year of DMA implementation and offered visions for its future development. The CERRE report’s call for increased multilateral, multistakeholder dialogue was roundly welcomed, as were recommendations regarding increased substantive guidance from the Commission. However, Ms Lorenzon also noted that more guidance about compliance from the Commission would require concomitant information sharing on the part of gatekeepers.
“I think, given the information asymmetry, the Commission must have the ability to change its analysis [in relation to compliance] if it has not been provided with clear and complete information by the gatekeepers” – Carolina Lorenzon, Media for Europe
Panellists went on to discuss how quantitative indicators might improve transparency around compliance – and debated whether the “self-executing” provisions of the DMA had measured up to their design.
Regulatory Trends in Digital Markets
The panel was followed by a keynote address from Thibaud Verge, Vice Chair of the French competition authority, L’Autorite de la Concurrence. Mr Verge discussed emerging trends in the regulation of digital markets and their implications for fundamental rights and sovereignty – in addition to economic concerns. Noting that data “is now a key parameter of competition”, he highlighted risks to public discourse, individual privacy, and democratic processes posed by market dominance in the digital space.
“Digital Markets are not only an economic concern … we need to remember that the dominance of a few global platforms is also an issue for sovereignty in our economies.” – Thibaud Vergé, Vice-President, Autorité de la Concurrence
Recommendations for DMA Evaluation
Research Director Alexandre de Streel wrapped up the presentation of CERRE’s DMA research with recommendations on the forthcoming evaluation of the DMA. In relation to both ex-ante impact assessment and ex-post evaluation, Professor de Streel emphasised the importance of focusing on causality rather than quantification, given the difficulties in operationalising and quantifying costs and benefits of the landmark regulation.
The final panel “Preparing for Progress: Better Regulation and the DMA”, saw these recommendations discussed by Carel Maske (Microsoft), Leo Rees (Epic Games) Audrey Scozzaro Ferazzini (Qualcomm), Raymond de Rooij (ACM) and Daniel Friedlander (CCIA). Panellists shared their experiences of compliance and enforcement processes to date. Difficulties in dealing with different potential approaches to compliance were a central issue for the panellists:
“The Commission plays an important role in trying to coordinate [ different compliance solutions] and I found that type of dialogue very helpful in finding a solution that balances the different interests.” – Carel Maske, Microsoft
Panelists welcomed CERRE’s detailed analysis of evaluation indicators, which were seen as essential to the credibility of the DMA as an effective competition tool. Looking farther forward, panelists discussed the future-proofness of the DMA and whether its “technological neutrality” would endure in an age of rapid AI-driven digital evolution.
The Summit’s final address came from Natalie Cohen, Head of Regulatory Governance at the OECD’s Global Challenges Unit. Welcoming the CERRE report, Ms Cohen outlined how the OECD has sought to support regulatory governance within Europe and farther afield through the dissemination of robust regulatory principles based on international best practice. Ms Cohen also discussed the challenges involved in regulating digital technologies, including uncertainty related to emerging risks, pace of change, the transboundary nature of the products and services offered, and the networks effects on other industries.
What’s next?
CERRE will continue to support the implementation of the DSA and DMA through detailed, independent research and analysis. You can read the DMA and DSA Forum Reports on CERRE’s website.
Watch the full recordings of the Summit on CERRE’s YouTube channel.
CERRE’s research agenda is guided by its Ambitions for Europe 2024-2029 white paper, available here.
