The Agency for Communications Networks and Services of the Republic of Slovenia, as the coordinator of digital services, informs the public that the European Commission (EC) has adopted two decisions against providers of very large online platforms, namely X and TikTok for breaches of the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The EC has fined Twitter, the provider of the online platform X, €120 million for breach of its obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This is a landmark decision, as it is the first time that the EC has decided to impose a financial penalty on a provider for an identified breach of the provisions of the DSA. The infringements relate to the misleading design of the service: the inappropriate use of the verified account label or "blue checkmark", the lack of transparency of the online repository of advertisements and advertisers, and the inadequate treatment of researchers who wanted to access publicly available data on the platform.
Henna Virkkunen, EC Executive Vice President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, pointed out that this first DSA non-compliance decision held the provider responsible for interfering with users' rights and avoiding accountability. The EC press release on this case is available here. The Agency adds that the EC launched the described procedure at the end of 2023. The second part of this procedure is still open and concerns the inadequate management of systemic risks on the online platform.
However, in the decision against TikTok, the EC accepted commitments from TikTok to comply with the obligations set out in the DSA, which were the subject of concerns raised by the EC in the investigation or the subject of prior scrutiny in the present procedure, namely the commitment to access the online ad and advertiser repository, and TikTok committed to certain practices which will also be subject to further scrutiny by the EC. Even in this investigation, which is the second one launched by the EC after the entry into force of the DSA, some questions remain as to compliance with the DSA. These relate, inter alia, to the existence of addictive patterns and the protection of children and minors. The EC press release on this matter is available here.
The Digital Services Act defines in Article 33 the notion of very large online platforms and search engines, which reach an average of at least 45 million active service users per month in the EU. Providers of such services are explicitly identified by the EC by means of a decision and the list of providers is made public. The EC also has exclusive or primary responsibility for the supervision of such providers, and the enforcement of certain obligations can also be supervised by the Digital Service Coordinators where such providers are established.
Currently, the EC has open investigations against several very large providers for various breaches of the DSA: X, TikTok, Meta, Whaleco (Temu) and four pornography platform providers (Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos), while it is monitoring compliance with the commitments in relation to AliExpress and TikTok.
