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This is Part 1 in our series focused on tracking the development of the EU’s AI Act. The series will provide updates and commentary as the AI Act moves through the EU’s legislative process.

To set the scene, the EU Commission first adopted its Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (the Proposed Act) back in April 2021. In ways a ground breaking piece of draft legislation, it was one of the first attempts to implement a regulatory framework which was specific to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This article aims…

Continue Reading Tracking the AI Act: Part 1 – How the EU is thinking about regulating the AI sector

Following the consultation, the Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) has today, 14 August 2023, published notice of the designation of video-sharing platform services (VSPSs) as a category of relevant online services the providers of which are under the jurisdiction of Ireland. This designation becomes effective on 11 September 2023.

Continue Reading Coimisiún na Meán publishes notice of the designation of video-sharing platform services under the OSMR

The Commission has published a draft delegated act on audits to be performed very large online platforms (“VLOPs“) and very large online search engines (“VLOSEs“) pursuant to Article 37 of Digital Services Act Regulation (“DSA“) for public feedback.

Continue Reading Commission publishes Draft Delegated Act in respect of Audits conducted under DSA

Following the first designation of Very Large Online Platforms (“VLOPS“) and Very Large Online Search Engines (“VLOSEs”) under the Digital Services Act Regulation (“DSA“) on 25 April 2023, the European Commission has now announced a call for evidence from stakeholders to inform proposed delegated acts on data access mechanisms.

Continue Reading Commission Calls for Stakeholder Views on Data Access Mechanism under DSA

Yesterday, 01 February 2023, the Commission published guidance on how online platforms and search engines within the scope of the Digital Services Act (DSA) should comply with their obligation to report user numbers in the EU.

As highlighted in our recent update, the DSA requires providers of online platforms and of online search engines to publish, by 17 February 2023, information on the average monthly active recipients of their services in the EU, on their publicly available online interfaces. The number must be calculated as an average over the period of the past six months.

Online platforms/search engines, whose numbers reach the threshold of 45 million average monthly active recipients in the EU, will be designated by the Commission as very large online service providers (VLOPs) or very large online search engines (VLOSEs). However, the Commission is not bound by information provided by online service providers, – it may use other available data or request additional information.

While the guidance is not ground breaking, it provides a helpful interpretation of certain provision of the DSA.

In relation to the calculation of active recipients of the service, the guidance stipulates the following:

Continue Reading DSA: Commission issues guidance on the requirement to publish user numbers in the EU

The first draft delegated regulation supplementing the Digital Services Act (DSA) was published by the European Commission yesterday.

The regulation outlines the criteria to be used when calculating the supervisory fees which will be charged on very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) under Article 43 of the DSA.

In particular, it includes:Continue Reading DSA: Delegated Regulation setting the methodology and procedure for determining the Supervisory Fee

On 19 December 2022, the Commissioner for Internal Market of the EU published an update on the date when very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) will be required to comply with the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The Commissioner noted that VLOPs / VLOSEs will be required to comply with the new rules by no later than 1 September 2023. To meet the deadline the Commission would need to designate VLOPs and VLOSEs by 28 April 2023. Based on this update the current timeline of the DSA application is as on the graphic below.Continue Reading Digital Services Act: Timeline

The Government has published the long anticipated Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022 which it has hailed as a “watershed moment as we move from self-regulation to an era of accountability in online safety”.

Online safety is one of the headline items, and it will be overseen by the newly-established Media Commission (Coimisiún na Meán). The Bill also seeks to implement a number of other key legislative reforms including the transposition of the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive and the alignment of the regulation of video on-demand services with traditional broadcasting.

The publication of this Bill follows input from and engagement with key stakeholders from the public, NGOs, companies and government organisations over the course of the last three years.

We have summarised some of the key aspects of the Bill below.Continue Reading Online Safety & Media Regulation Bill 2022