👉 You can access the final text of the DSA here.

The Digital Services Act was officially published in the Official Journal of the European Union on October 27, 2022, the rules regulate how platforms and marketplaces must handle illegal content, goods, and services, as well as introduce specific provisions for larger platforms to increase the transparency of data processing through algorithms.

Legal teams will have their work cut out for them as they determine how to modify policies and procedures to assure compliance and avoid penalties that can scale up to 6% of worldwide sales for the more severe violations.

By streamlining how platforms and marketplaces must address illicit information, commodities, and services and introducing particular restrictions for larger platforms that are designed to increase transparency surrounding sophisticated algorithms, the guidelines are meant to promote accountability online.

The DSA regulation will go into effect in 20 days in accordance with EU procedure (so in mid-November). However, that isn’t the actual start date because there is still a wait until the provisions take effect to give firms time to adapt and align. According to the Commission, the majority of the DSA requirements will take effect on January 1, 2024.

So-called VLOPs (also known as very large online platforms) — will be the first obligated to conform to the new compliance requirements, starting to apply as early next year – so, in the first quarter of 2023, compliance obligations will probably start to weigh heavily on a number of larger IT companies and Big Tech giants.

🗣 The Digital Markets Act, a related policy that exclusively targets Big Tech for ex-ante regulation, will also begin to take effect at the beginning of next year.