Ensuring Electronic Signature Legality for Paid-Time-Off Policy in European Union

How to eSign a document: electronic signature legality for Paid-Time-Off Policy in European Union

[Music] dear colleagues on the 15th of december 2020 the commission adopted its proposals for a digital markets act and the digital services act the two proposals are complementary and work towards the common goal of building a safer and fairer online environment across europe with the two proposals we are putting rules in place where today unilateral decisions by private actors determine the safety of citizens online the respect of fundamental rights and the contestability and fairness of digital markets while on this video i will focus on the digital markets act we cannot forget that the european approach to digital markets also involves the deployment of other tools more specifically with our proposal for the digital services act the commission intends to increase and harmonize the level of protection of consumers and businesses across the eu by proposing amongst others members measures to counter illegal content online with a mechanism for users to flag such content and for platforms to cooperate with trusted flaggers or obligations for very large online platforms to prevent abuse of their systems by taking risk-based action including oversight through independent audits of their risk management measures [Music] sometimes there is a false belief that regulation stifles innovation instead a well-designed regulation can and should promote innovation think for example of the financial sector it's one of the most heavily regulated sectors and yet no one would argue that the financial sector is not innovative in fact if well designed regulation can and should foster competition and innovation and protect market participants and society at large the high interest that we are seeing around the digital markets act and the consensus in the need to act at all levels national european amongst the business community is a good proxy of the importance of the digital markets act and of the broader policy question that we are trying to reply to how can we repair existing problems in digital markets and ensure that platforms behave in a fair and open manner the digital markets act or dma is a regulatory proposal put forward by the european commission for all of the european union it seeks to address risks to the openness and fairness in digital markets where a handful of gatekeeper companies are present these are companies that play a particularly important role in the internal market because of their sheer size and their importance as gateways for business users to reach their customers the proposal is currently being discussed by the european core legislators the council representing the governments of the 27 eu member states and the european parliament whose members are directly elected by european citizens if passed by these european co-legislators the digital markets act would impose a series of do's and don'ts on very large platforms occupying a position of gatekeeper in one of eight so-called core platform services these are services where contestability issues and unfair practices are most prominent they include for instance search engines social networks online intermediation services like app stores and marketplaces and messaging services it does not matter where the gatekeeper is established as long as it offers one of these core platform services in the eu given the size of these companies the cross-border nature of their activities and the risk of fragmentation if every eu member state were to go its own way we see value in having a single regulatory instrument across all member states the digital markets act is hence an internal market tool based on the harmonization provision of article 114 of the 3t on the functioning of the eu the digital markets act is a regulatory solution that complements eu and national competition law which remain fully applicable that said national and eu competition law have inspired the shaping of the digital markets act and some problems that the dma aims at addressing were identified in the context of past and ongoing competition law enforcement at eu and national level when putting together the proposal we have sought to strike a balance between flexibility speed and legal certainty we need to make sure that we do not under enforce or over enforce all while remaining quick but preserving also the rights of the parties that will need to comply with the digital markets act once it enters into force the commission will first assess whether companies active in core platform services qualify as gatekeeper under the digital markets act companies will have to verify themselves if they meet the quantitative criteria set out in the act turnover figures monthly user figures and so on if that is the case companies will have to provide a commission with information on these elements and the commission will then designate them as gay keepers the commission can also designate gatekeepers based on qualitative criteria after a market investigation and within six months after a company is identified as a gatekeeper for a particular core platform service it will have to comply with the do's and don'ts listed in the dma for that particular service [Music] there are two main types of obligations in the first place obligations where there is no doubt for the gatekeeper on how exactly to implement them most favorite nation clauses for example or clauses preventing business users from concluding contracts outside the gatekeepers platform secondly there are obligations where gatekeepers may request the commission to have an implementation dialog in order to make sure that the obligations are appropriately implemented for example prohibition of preferential ranking of downstream products or various data related and interoperability obligations all in all the digital markets act includes 20 do's and don'ts and whereas some of these rules apply to all gatekeepers to oco platform services such as for example a ban of gag clauses or the obligation to inform the commission about acquisitions other do's and don'ts only apply to certain core platform services such as for example the clause banning unfair access conditions which is limited to app stores let me give you some further examples of the rules in the digital markets act gatekeepers need to allow their business users and conclude contracts with their customers also outside the gatekeepers platform gatekeepers need to provide their business users with access to data generated by their activities on the gatekeepers platform gatekeepers may no longer block users from uninstalling any pre-installed software or applications and gatekeepers may not use data obtained from their business users to compete with those business users in downstream markets [Music] well there are far-reaching monitoring and enforcement powers for seen in the digital markets act which will be familiar to anyone who is familiar with our competition investigations these powers include the ability to request information from companies or to conduct interviews and inspections and in case of non-compliance with the prohibitions and obligations set out in the regulation there can be fines up to 10 percent of the gatekeepers worldwide turnover in case of systematic non-compliance with the dma the commission can even impose additional behavioral or structural remedies to the extent that these are necessary to ensure compliance and proportionate to the infringement finally to keep the rules future proof the proposal for a digital markets act provides the commission with the possibility to carry out market investigations to examine whether new services in the digital sector should be added to the list of core platform services and moreover the same tool would allow the commission to expand the scope of the regulation if it detects new practices by gatekeeper platforms that are not effectively addressed by the proposed digital markets act [Music] at the current stage in november 2021 the digital markets act is still a proposal and it will remain as such until the council and the parliament of the european union the court legislators have given their approval in what is called the ordinary legislative procedure of the european union discussions are advancing at a good speed in fact both institutions have agreed to make this file a priority if everything goes smoothly both institutions could be reaching an agreement as soon as the first half of 2021 with the entry into force happening still before the end of next year thank you for your attention and i hope you have enjoyed this introduction to the proposal for the digital markets act in the european union [Music] you