Ref. Ares(2022)5039016 - 11/07/2022
Meeting with
, Microsoft
18 May 2022
The Commission will have the exclusive competence for the designation of very large
online platforms (VLOPs) and the enforcement of systemic obligations against them.
The Commission will be able to charge VLOPs an annual supervisory fee, its amount
will be capped to 0.05% of the worldwide net income of platforms.
Defensives
What measures do search engines need to take?
The political agreement confirms that search engines are online intermediaries. They
will continue to benefit from liability exemptions, with a case-by-case assessment.
A particular attention is given to very large search engines, those reaching more than
10% of the EU population. They will bear similar obligations as very large online
platforms, for example in conducting risk assessments, adopting appropriate risk
mitigation measures and being subject to independent auditing.
How will the Commission finance costs associated with the new supervisory and
enforcement competences?
In order to ensure effective compliance with the DSA, it is important that the
Commission has at its disposal necessary resources, in terms of staffing, expertise,
and financial means, for the performance of its tasks under this Regulation. To this
end, the Commission will charge supervisory fees on such providers, level of which will
be established on an annual basis. The overall amount of annual supervisory fees
charged will be established on the basis of the overall amount of the costs incurred by
the Commission to exercise its supervisory tasks under this Regulation, as reasonably
estimated beforehand.
The annual supervisory fee to be charged on providers of very large online platforms
and very large online search engines should be proportionate to the size of the service
as reflected by the number of its recipients in the Union. To this end, the individual
annual supervisory fee should not exceed an overall ceiling for each provider of very
large online platforms and very large online search engine taking into account the
economic capacity of the provider of the designated service or services. Such ceiling is
set at 0,05% of the annual worldwide net income of the provider concerned.
When will the DSA start applying?
The precise time-table depends on the legal finalisations and subsequent translations,
as well as the timing of the final approval in the European Parliament and Council.
After this, the rules will start applying in two steps: the rules for very large online
platforms and search engines supervised by the Commission will kick-in earlier –
approximately the second half of 2023, while Member States will have a maximum of
15 months or 1 January 2024 (whichever is later) to empower their national authorities
for the rules on smaller platforms.
Specifically, the Commission is expected to designate providers some six months after
the publication of the rules in the Official Journal
and providers of large platforms and search
engines will then have four months to comply.
Background
Microsoft position – DSA
Points of support
Maintaining the basic principles of the e-Commerce Directive on country of origin,
conditional liability and prohibition of general monitoring obligations.
Topics for discussion
2/3
Meeting with
, Microsoft
18 May 2022
Points of criticisms / recommendations
Contact – briefing contribution:
Topics for discussion
3/3
