Online platforms

Online platforms have become part of our everyday lives. They come in a wide variety of forms that encompass services such as social media, online marketplaces, app stores, search engines, payment systems, creative content outlets, price comparison websites and platforms for the collaborative (or ‘gig’) economy.

Although these platforms bring us many benefits, there is a danger that the dominance of certain platforms gives them an advantage over their competitors and impedes new players from entering the market. There are other dangers too, such as illegal or harmful content, where the use of certain platforms has resulted in giving some parties undue influence in elections, or in incitement to terrorism or sexual abuse, or hate speech.

To address these issues, as part of a digital services package, the European Union has agreed upon the adoption of two landmark legislative acts that entered into force in autumn 2022:

• The digital services act, which seeks to ensure:
  • more safety for users (protecting them from illegal/harmful content while preserving their freedom of expression);
  • greater transparency of platforms (explaining why users see what they see on a platform, for example, or why one seller is ranked higher than another); and
  • better enforcement (providing for redress and sanctions).
• The digital markets act, which applies to ‘gatekeepers’ operating core platform services (for example, online intermediation services, search engines, social networking services, video-sharing platform services), who are potentially capable of creating digital market bottlenecks between businesses and end-users. It seeks to ensure that the role large gatekeepers play does not give them an unfair advantage and that they meet several obligations, including in relation to:
  • the use to which they put the vast amount of data they collect;
  • the need for their solutions to be interoperable, so that competing providers are not excluded from the platform; and
  • adjusting their search algorithms so that rival offers have the same level of prominence as their own offers.