New Regulation: Targeting Under 18s is Prohibited

Temporary agreements in the European Union from April regarding the Digital Services Act and from March regarding Digital Markets will fundamentally change the current understanding of digital business and transform the EU into a global leader in this field. Online content and advertising will be regulated by the Digital Services Act (DSA), while the dominance of large global platforms and market competitiveness will be limited by the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

In this way, existing rules are being upgraded and national legislations are being surpassed, which have so far attempted to address the digital chaos separately, as rules will be created that will apply equally across the EU. The digital services package, which includes these two laws, was presented by the European Commission a year and a half ago, and the laws are described as two pillars of European digital regulation. The temporary agreements on the laws still need to be confirmed by the EU Council and the European Parliament.

User Protection

According to the Digital Services Act, users will have better insight into why certain content is recommended to them and will be able to choose the option not to be profiled. Targeted advertising will be prohibited for minors, and the use of sensitive data such as sexual orientation, religion, or ethnic affiliation will not be allowed. Users will be better protected from harmful and illegal content that can be removed more easily, and better rules will be introduced to protect freedom of speech or rules that products sold must be safe and meet the highest standards in the EU.

The European Commission is introducing a series of obligations for digital service providers through the Digital Services Act, such as rules for removing illegal goods, services, or content online, protections for users whose content has been unjustly deleted by platforms, new obligations for very large platforms to prevent abuse of their systems, transparency that includes online advertising, easier access to key data about platforms, and new rules on the traceability of business users on websites for easier identification of sellers of illegal goods. It will also be possible to challenge platform decisions on content moderation and seek compensation for disputes through judicial or extrajudicial means, non-governmental organizations will have access to public data, and search engines will have to prevent abuse of their systems.

Prohibition of Certain Practices

The Digital Markets Act aims to ensure equal conditions for digital companies of all sizes to prevent the imposition of unfair conditions on other companies and consumers. Therefore, it will be necessary to define the services and products offered by the access provider itself, as opposed to similar services or products from third parties on the access provider’s platform. Compliance between messaging platforms will be improved, and the EU expects that the rules will encourage innovation, growth, and competitiveness and help smaller and new companies compete with the largest players.

This law, however, applies only to the largest providers of core platform services, such as search engines, social networks, and online intermediary services as access providers (the Commission will designate them after market research). Unfair practices such as preventing users from uninstalling pre-installed software or applications will be prohibited, and access providers will have to implement measures that, for example, allow the proper functioning of third-party software.

They must not give preference to their own products and services at the expense of other market participants and reuse personal data collected for one service for the purposes of another service. Penalties for non-compliance will also be introduced, so for example, in the case of repeated violations, a possible penalty could be the sale of the company. The Commission is also enabled to conduct targeted market research to introduce new rules in line with changes in digital markets.

Certain past practices of large platforms such as Facebook, Google, or Amazon, or those that achieve a market value of at least 75 billion euros in the previous year or an annual turnover in the EU of 7.5 billion euros in the last three years will be prohibited. To be access providers, they must provide browsing and social networking services with at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU and 10,000 business users per year.

Users’ personal data may only be used with special permission from access providers, who, in the case of non-compliance with the rules, the Commission may impose fines of up to 10 percent of their total global revenue in the previous year or 20 percent of their global revenue if they repeat the offense. In the case of systematic violations, the Commission, which will conduct market investigations, may even temporarily prohibit them from acquiring other companies. If an access provider violates the rules at least three times in eight years, the Commission may initiate a market investigation, monitor operations, or impose structural measures.

Attractiveness of a Fair Market

The Regulation on Fair Markets with the possibility of unlimited market competition in the digital sector (i.e., the Digital Markets Act) states that access providers significantly influence the internal market, enabling a large number of business users to access end users. The harmful impact of unfair practices on the internal market, including negative social and economic consequences, as stated in the Regulation, has led national legislators to initially act separately.

'Numerous regulatory solutions have already been adopted at the national level, but this has created different legislative approaches and fragmented the internal market, increasing the likelihood of rising costs due to the alignment of national regulatory provisions. The purpose of the Regulation is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market by establishing rules to ensure fairness for the market in digital activities in general and especially for business users and end users of platform-supervisor services.

Supervisors should not design, manage, or organize their online interfaces in a way that deceives, manipulates, or undermines the ability of end users to freely give consent for the use of their data. Supervisors should not be allowed to ask end users to give consent for data processing more than once a year for data for which they initially did not give consent or to ask them to withdraw consent. Children deserve special protection regarding their personal data, especially for commercial communication or user profile creation purposes. Protecting children online is an important goal for the EU, and nothing in the Regulation exempts supervisors from the obligation to protect children under Union law', it is emphasized in the Regulation.