The pre-emptive effect of the Digital Services Act
Remy Chavannes and Karlijn van den Heuvel published a paper in the Weekend Edition of EU Law Live. In this paper, they discuss the pre-emptive effect of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA has recently become applicable to intermediary service providers in the EU, from very large online platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Booking.com to much smaller and less well-known digital service providers. This landmark EU legislation aims to establish a fully harmonised framework for intermediary service to ensure a safe, predictable and trusted online environment. Given the full harmonisation aim, the question arises how much room there is left for national legislation in this field. Despite the DSA’s detailed rules, Member States may still perceive a need to address specific domestic concerns, for example in relation to the protection of minors or disinformation. The authors examine to what extent the DSA pre-empts such national laws, exploring what (if any) competence remains for Member States.