Abstract

Online platforms and search engines, especially the very large ones, now play an important role in social and economic life, becoming the main place for the exchange of information or views, as well as goods and services. The provisions of Directive 2000/31/EC (on electronic commerce) did not provide for the development of so-called very large online platforms, and very large search engines in particular. These shortcomings of the e-commerce directive concern the ‘organisational control’ of the content posted by users. This is why the solutions contained in the DSA represent a change in the right direction since they aim to impose a series of new obligations on online platform and search engine operators, especially very large ones, to create a “secure and transparent online environment”. The enactment of a new piece of legislation in this area, in the form of a regulation rather than a directive, should facilitate harmonisation of these rules across the EU. It should be borne in mind that the DSA concerns only one of the two basic models for the operation of online platforms.