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BackThe Chamber of Labour (AK) considers the proposal for a law on digital services announced by the European Commission in its 2020 Work Programme to be urgently necessary. The AK therefore expressly welcomes the fact that the European Parliament is already dealing with the question of which aspects should be included in this planned law.
From the AK's point of view, it requires a modern legal act that meets the challenges of the digital world regarding employment, social affairs, consumer protection, tax and competition policy. Fair competition should be guaranteed as well as the validity of the destination country principle in order to avoid a ruinous European location race. In particular, this includes taking action against the precarisation of employees in the industry and preventing the circumvention of tax and duty obligations.
To strengthen consumer protection the AK demands:
- Transparency regulations for rankings
- Uniform regulation of online advertising
- Validity of good regulatory approaches of the regulation "platform to business", also for consumers
- Net neutrality at platform level
- Fighting cybercrime through greater platform responsibility
- Retention of Art 15 of the E-Commerce Directive
- Detailed rules for "notice and take down“
In order to ensure fair competition and the proactive establishment of the "rules of the game" in bilateral or multilateral markets, sector-specific ex-ante regulations of market-dominant Internet platforms is urgently needed. Here, appropriate regulatory authorities at European and national level carrying out ex-ante supervision must be established without delay. Ex-ante regulation is also needed in the context of the development of Digital Innovation Centres and Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, it is also necessary to set up dispute settlement mechanisms.
Frank Ey
Contact by emailUlrike Ginner
Contact by emailDaniela Zimmer
Contact by email