The European Commission wants to amend a directive since 2000 and establish judicial responsibility for online platforms. Brussels especially wants to tighten the frame of the internet giants.

Since 2000 and since European directives on e-commerce, hosting platforms have benefited from adaptive legal regimes. Therefore, when users publish illegal content from the servers of companies that benefit from this status, they are only liable if they do not take immediate action after receiving the report. This text was handed over in France in 2004 for trust in the Digital Economy (LCEN).
However, this framework can be developed in the next few years, and the new European Commission can moderate, adjust and even question the so-called “retrospective” modestly. This seems to imply Thierry Breton, who took over the role of Internal Market Specialist on December 1, 2019, in an interview with Les Echos on January 7. However, he did not say exactly what he intended to do.
The commission’s new heavyweights have a large portfolio, but declared “there is clearly a need to hold the platform to its responsibilities” as it observes that “only five platforms are acceptable”. Or six major participants stored 80% of the Earth ’s data, but did not consider themselves responsible for the use of that data. ”Thierry Breton has no name, but obviously the big US groups are the target .
Thierry Breton argues that in an age of false information, hate news, and illegal content, we must “swiftly strengthen the responsibilities of large platforms.” He added: “The e-commerce directive has been in use for a long time, but the environment and use have changed a lot since its adoption.” Therefore, although no final decision has been made, legal updates are still expected: “I It would be better to do this within the framework of an e-commerce directive, but we will see if we need to go further. ”

Future Digital Services Act

Thierry Breton’s speech is not ubiquitous. When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed her political policy for 2019-2024, documents made available to the public evoked “new digital services legislation”, “which will strengthen Our responsibility and security in platforms, services and digital products. ”
This work will be carried out in particular by a colleague of Thierry Breton of the Danish Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition matters within the committee. One of his responsibilities is to “direct legal work to improve the responsibility and security rules for digital platforms, services and products within the new digital services legal framework”.
However, these legal developments should be strongly opposed by the giants of the Internet. As reported by the World News, Edima lobbying groups defending the interests of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, eBay, Airbnb, Apple, Snapchat and Expedia are stepping up discussions: As a result, they are officially willing to host the reform The limited liability is the totem they do not want to be touched.