Full name: Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act)

(Link to original text)

Type: Regulation

Objective and key elements:

• Uniform rules for a safe, predictable, and trusted online environment where fundamental rights are effectively protected
• Contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market for intermediary services
• The obligations include e.g.,
  • ban on nudging and dark patterns
  • know your customer
  • transparency in targeted advertising
  • transparency in ranking parameters
  • ban on targeted advertisement to minors and using special categories of data
• Requirements on online platforms:
  • obligations to "clean up",
  • must start sharing how algorithms and processes work, and
  • to put processes in place to remove illegal goods and content quickly and crack down on users who spread misinformation
• Enables the Commission to designate the largest intermediary services operating in the EU (over 45 million average users/month) as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) or Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs)
  • strictest obligations are imposed on VLOPs and VLOSEs

Relevant to: Providers and users of online intermediary services (such as network infrastructure services, VPNs, online marketplaces, domain name registrars, hosting services, cloud providers, social media platforms, search engines)

Status:In force, applicable since 17 February 2024

Guidance:

• European Commission: DSA - Questions and Answers
• European Commission: A Safer & Fairer Online Environment

(Last updated 30 September 2024)

Implemented in Finland as:

• Laki verkon välityspalvelujen valvonnasta 12.1.2024/18
  • The act includes provisions on the competent authorities, their cooperation, and their powers to investigate and to impose remedies and penalties. In addition, it includes reference provisions about which authority to notify of suspected criminal offenses (the police) and appeals.

Status: In force.

Supervisory authority: The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) is the supervisory authority.

However, the Finnish Consumer Ombudsman is the competent authority for the purposes of Article 25, when the online platform provides a service to a consumer, and for the purposes of Article 26(1) a to c, when it comes to advertising from a trader to a consumer. In addition, the Finnish Consumer Ombudsman is the competent authority for the purposes of Articles 26(2), 30(7), and 32. The Consumer Ombudsman shall not supervise advertising of an ideological or societal nature. The Consumer Ombudsman also supervises the legality of contractual terms and conditions, marketing, and the procedures followed in the customer relationship relative to consumer protection.

Moreover, the Data Protection Ombudsman has competence for the purposes of Article 26(1) a to c, except when the advertising is supervised by the Consumer Ombudsman. Additionally, the Data Protection Ombudsman has competence for the purposes of Articles 26(1) d, 26(3), 27, and 28.

(Last updated 23 September 2024)