El reglamento de servicios digitalesun nuevo marco de responsabilidad para los prestadores de servicios intermediarios en la Unión Europea

Abstract

On 27 October 2022, the Digital Services Act was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, a regulation that aims to adapt the legal framework of intermediary service providers to today’s social and technological reality. In addition to the liability exemption rules already included in the Directive 2000/31/EC on Electronic Commerce, the new regulation incorporates a whole range of due diligence obligations applicable to the different categories of intermediary service providers, including online platforms, a concept previously unheard of in European law. The regulation imposes special due diligence obligations to those online platforms which, due to their size, entail a greater risk of disseminating illegal or harmful content, spreading fake news, inciting hatred speech or affecting electoral processes, as reality has shown in recent years. The new regulation, which will be fully applicable from 17 February 2024, is set to have a tremendous impact on the protection of European citizens’ rights, but its effects are likely to extend beyond the European Union. In principle, intermediary service providers are obliged to comply with the new regulation when they operate in the European market irrespective of their place of establishment or location, but experience shows that in many cases European standards end up spreading to other markets as a result of the so-called “Brussels effect”.