Assess EU digital service coordinators for resources and readiness

This article is part of a series of publications marking the first 100 days since the full implementation of the European Digital Services Act on February 17, 2024. You can read more from this series here.

When the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) came into full force on 17 February 2024, each of the EU’s 27 Member States had to appoint a competent authority to act as a Digital Services Coordinator (DSC). Together with the European Commission, DSCs are responsible for implementing and enforcing the DSA in their own jurisdictions. Like the bloc’s flagship privacy framework, the General Data Protection Regulation, the regulators designated to administer the DSA at national level are responsible for monitoring and regulating all online services located within their jurisdiction, including working with the Commission to enforce the law. appropriate for the largest services, Very Large Internet Platforms (VLOP) and Search Engines (VLOSE).

In addition to the investigations and sanctions that fall under the DSC’s enforcement responsibilities, designated regulators are also responsible for building the infrastructure required to fully implement the DSA. DSCs are responsible for certifying trusted whistleblowers, vetting researchers, and responding to inquiries and complaints from their constituencies. While national regulatory authorities do benefit from the Commission’s support in enforcing the DSA in relation to VLOP and VLOSE, these regulators bear overall responsibility for the heavy administrative work of building new bureaucracies around digital economies. Although there are fewer statutory requirements, many of these designated regulators are also actively involved in their member states’ involvement in the DSA’s sister legislation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which places them centrally in efforts to create a digital single market in all over the country. European Union.

Currently, 100 days after the full implementation of DSA, the DSC situation in the EU varies greatly. Where some existing regulators have been tasked with adding new elements to their portfolios, other jurisdictions have restructured or created new agencies to deal with DSA responsibilities. Several Member States have even quarreled with the Commission by failing to appoint a duly empowered regulatory authority or no regulatory authority at all as DSC. Given the Commission’s increased action – five DSA investigations were opened in just over five months – a well-functioning DSC may not seem crucial to efforts to address the most egregious harm caused by the largest platforms. However, if we are to believe that DSA will completely create a safer online world, the painstaking and often unnoticed work of implementation at national level will be the foundation of a united European digital sphere.

Given the disproportionate population of VLOPs and VLOSEs with a European headquarters on the Emerald Isle, the newly named and recently reformed Irish Coimisiún na Meán will be the most prestigious DSC in the EU. Not surprisingly, Ireland was also one of the fastest countries to commit some of the most extensive per capita resources to an internet safety regulator. Like its GDPR-focused counterpart, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, Coimisiún na Meán will be responsible, along with the Commission, for regulating Apple, Google, Meta, TikTok and X and other tech giants. Unlike most other Member States, the new media regulator was built on a new statutory basis, reforming the former Irish Broadcasting Authority, which had a greater remit for online safety through both the DSA and national policy . While Coimisiún na Meán is unique compared to its EU counterparts, Coimisiún na Meán’s budget of €1.46 per inhabitant (for the financial year 2022-2023) and approximately 130 staff allows it to align its resources with those of other major safety regulatory authorities on the internet around the world, including the Australian e-Safety Commissioner and the British Communications Office, better known as Ofcom.

Much more frequent decisions have been made to assign additional DSC title and responsibilities to existing national telecommunications regulatory authorities. In total, of the competent authorities identified as DSCs so far, 17 are existing national telecommunications regulatory authorities. As many of these agencies have overseen the liberalization of European telecommunications and the introduction of asymmetric regulation for competitive markets, contributing to the creation of yet another new regulatory regime will be a more high-profile feat for these national regulators. In addition to completed and pending major attack entities such as Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) and Spain’s Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC), smaller national regulators such as the Malta Communications Authority will also expand their portfolio o managing online services for its customers Member States.

Given the global trend towards market convergence, as well as growing political pressure among European network operators to extend symmetric regulation to technology companies competing in communications markets, many of these regulators have already initiated some work programs related to online services, often including the implementation of Regulation EU on Open Internet Access in 2016. Likewise, trends in consumer-centric policy-making in European telecommunications in recent years mean that many of these agencies will establish channels to contact and reach consumers, providing a bit of institutional memory for DSA-related consumer services .

Ultimately, these national regulators will have more limited responsibilities at the supranational level, as well as much more modest resources. Given the concentration of large platforms in only a few member states, much of the enforcement work that attracts headlines falls in other parts of the bloc. This may be related to the fact that many of these telecom regulators have seen little or no budget increases in recent fiscal years. The CNMC, BNetzA and Italy’s Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) have only seen budget increases of 4, 12 and 8% over the last five funding cycles. While these regulators are funded both by policy measures at central level and by independent fees charged by the regulator to industry stakeholders, their DSA-related work areas will need to continue with limited additional expenditure.

Although the responsibilities of individual DSCs will vary significantly, the main objective of the DSA and DMA package remains the creation of a digital single market in the EU. Given the similar restructuring of telecommunications markets, the regulatory work of this DSC group will be aimed at unifying Europe, even in the face of significantly different resources and legal bases. Over the next 100 days and through the next European Commission, the question now is not only whether the EU can successfully implement DSA, but whether that implementation can have an equally effective impact everywhere among unequal implementers in the form of DSC.