DSA: Czech Industry and Government call for modernization

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a key legislative proposal for the European businesses and citizens. Given the importance of the topic and the upcoming EU Presidency, the Czech Republic considers the DSA to be one of the priority policy areas. D9+ government and industry players alike agree that the DSA is an opportunity to clarify the roles of online intermediaries and boost the innovative potential of European economy - it should modernize, but not overrule the e-Commerce Directive, which has allowed innovation to flourish.

The Confederation of Industry and The Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade held an online event called DSA - Game Changer for online services and citizens. The discussion brought together policymakers, businesses, and civil society - including the Commission's Vice-President Věra Jourová, the European Parliament's Vice-President Marcel Kolaja, Deputy Minister for Digitisation and Innovation Petr Očko, and other renowned experts.

“I believe that the European businesses need legal clarity and a workable regulatory framework. What we need is a precision regulation that would address concrete problems. One size fits all - broad legislation with an unclear scope would cost time and money that many of our members, especially SMEs, simply don't have - particularly in light of the ongoing pandemic and the economic crisis,” said Milena Jabůrková, Vice-President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic in conclusion.

“We agree with the need to update of e-Commerce Directive,” said Petr Očko in his keynote. “But we should preserve its core principles and avoid overregulation. This will help us to keep the DSA a compact horizontal enabler of cross-border provision of digital services,” he added.

The panelists discussed topics and issues such as: Aspects of the e-Commerce directive that require updating and which principles should be preserved. How to update the categories of online intermediaries? What should be the due diligence obligations? What does meaningful transparency look like? How to address harmful but legal content while safeguarding fundamental rights?


See the whole event bellow.