Ensuring eSignature Lawfulness for Technical Support in the European Union

How to eSign a document: e-signature lawfulness for Technical Support in European Union

when it comes to digital regulation the eu is widely seen as a trailblazer from the original data protection directive all the way back in 1995 through to its beefed up successor the general data protection regulation or gdpr in 2016 it's clear that the eu has long been on the front line of the fight against big tech and they're continuing this fight because this year the eu passed two further landmark pieces of consumer protection legislation the digital markets act and the digital services act so in this video we'll take a look at the latest in this fight and what these acts mean for big tech in europe and beyond [Music] if you like our videos and want more from todayiu then be sure to subscribe to channel and help us finally reach half a million subscribers first things first though what actually are the digital markets act otherwise known as the dma and the digital services act the dsa well forming part of the digital services package these two acts ing to the european commission have two main goals to create a safer digital space in which fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected and to establish a level playing field to foster innovation growth and competitiveness both in the european single market and globally now clearly these mission statements aren't particularly informative they're basically just a bunch of political buzzwords so to probably understand this legislation we're going to have to explain their primary purpose and then dive into the details of each one and the primary purpose of both the dsa and dma is to harmonize rules across the european union currently digital service providers in the eu have to deal with 27 different sets of national rules regulations and bureaucracy the hope is then that these two acts will a make it easier for small online platforms to scale up across member states and b make it easier for the eu to regulate tech giants that already operate across national borders and who may or may not be twisting local rules to their advantage so let's take a look at each act individually starting with the digital services act the dsa will require online platforms to provide clear easy ways to report illegal content goods and services and place platforms under due diligence obligations which basically means that they have to perform at least partial checks on the content hosted on their platform now these obligations do vary a bit and the largest platforms where the eu claims the most serious harm already occurs will end up facing the most stringent obligations for instance they'll be required to design their systems and algorithms to actively tackle disinformation platforms will also be required to explain any censorship decisions to their users as well as providing some sort of appeal mechanism to users who disagree with the platform's editorial decisions you get the idea then the main purpose of the dsa is to make online platforms more responsible for the content they host making them more like publishers rather than just passive hosting sites on top of this the dsa will also ban targeted adverts which are directed at minors or use sensitive personal data such as gender religion or sexual preference as well as requiring platforms to provide meaningful information about targeted ads including who sponsored the ad and how and why they targeted that user finally the dsa will also require platforms terms and conditions to be understandable even to children now while these regulations might sound like a costly burden on smaller firms they're actually designed to ramp up depending on a platform's size and role in the online ecosystem so-called intermediary services for instance online service providers or domain name registrars will face the least regulation while while quote very large online platforms who are responsible for the internet's information ecosystem will face the very highest regulatory burden so that's the digital services act let's move on to the digital markets act well the dsa focused on smaller platforms the dma is focused exclusively on the larger platforms the so-called gatekeepers ing to eu a platform is a gatekeeper if they either have an annual turnover of at least 7.5 billion euros in the eu have a market valuation of at least 75 billion euros or have at least 45 million monthly end users and at least 10 000 business users established in the eu those designated as gatekeepers will have a number of obligations a series of positive obligations things they have to do and a series of negative obligations things they'll be prohibited from doing on the positive side gatekeeper platforms will be required to allow third parties to interoperate with the gatekeeper's own services as well as allowing business owners to access the data that they generate from the platform in practical terms that means the likes of whatsapp facebook messenger and imessage will be required to open up their platforms and interoperate with smaller messaging services which should allow users to better exchange messages between platforms on the negative side though gatekeeper platforms we barred from treating services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself more favorably in ranking than similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeepers platform which would mean for example amazon couldn't unfairly promote their own products on their site they'll also be banned from preventing customers from linking up to businesses outside of their platform and from uninstalling any pre-installed software or app if they wish to do so failing to comply with these terms risks fines of up to 10 percent of the company's total worldwide annual turnover a figure that's boosted to 20 in the event of repeated infringements in the case of so-called systematic infringements the eu will also consider additional remedies including quote behavioral and structural remedies a euphemistic reference to a forced breakup but what does all of this even mean for tech giants now well neither the dsa or dma should come as much of a shock to most businesses proposals for a significant harmonization of regulation in the digital space have been on the cards for years now and the two pieces of regulation have actually been in negotiations for the past two years the eu also has some form in this respect since the original data protection directive back in 1995 and especially since 2016 and gdpr the eu has been a prolific combatant against major tech firms as a final thing it's worth noting that while these laws only technically apply the european union in reality by virtue of how large and influential the european market is these new regulations will probably set the standard across the globe this is a phenomenon known as the brussels effect and we actually did a video on it very recently which is linked below but already the us canada uk and singapore some of the largest markets outside of the eu look set to follow the eu's example on this matter now what impact all of this will actually have on big tech is yet to be seen but it does look like governments are beginning to take the idea of internet regulation more seriously and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains yet to be seen but if you do want to be updated on this story as it plays out then you should check out the daily briefing that's our daily show where we explain five new stories every single day we pick the big stories the ones you need to know about as well as some smaller ones that you might have otherwise missed so if you want to be better informed about the world around you and news from all over the globe then you really ought to subscribe and it's only a few minutes each day so what do you have to lose we post a video version every weekday over on the tldr daily youtube channel so you can subscribe over there or you can listen along to the podcast by searching for the tldr daily briefing in your favorite podcast app thanks for your support and i hope you enjoy the show you