Beyond the Digital Markets Act: much more than a piece of legislation

On November 24, 2023November 24, 2023 By officialblogunioIn EssaysLeave a comment

Inês Neves (Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Porto | Researcher at CIJ - Centre for Legal Research | Member of the Jean Monnet Module team DigEUCit - A Digital Europe for Citizens. Constitutional and policymaking challenges) and Luísa Amaro de Matos (LL.M. in European Legal Studies – College of Europe, Bruges)

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On 6 September 2023, the European Commission (‘EC’) designated a first set of six gatekeepers in relation to 22 core platform services(‘CPS’)[1]. These undertakings must ensure compliance with the positive and negative obligations set out in the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’)[2] by March 2024.[3]

Meanwhile, the DMA is already having an impact, with Facebook and Instagram, for instance, offering European users ‘the choice’ to pay a monthly subscription to use their social networks without any advertising (ads).[4]

On 17 November 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) confirmed that Apple, Bytedance and Meta had brought actions challenging the designation of (some of) their core platform services,[5] namely Titktok as regards Bytedance (T-1077/23); Facebook Marketplace and Messenger concerning Meta (T-1078/23), and App Store and iMessage for Apple (Cases T-1079/23 & T-1080/23).

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The need for an egalitarian ethical framework for emerging technologies

On November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 By officialblogunioIn EssaysLeave a comment

Manuel Protásio (PhD Candidate at the School of Law of the University of Minho. FCT research scholarship holder – Bolsa UI/BD/152801/2022)

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The blurring boundary between humans and machines introduces a crucial dichotomy between consciousness and information, shaping the dynamics of our technological engagement and the “limbo” between humans and technologies, situated around perception, is central to how the law assesses its potential effects on human behaviour.

According to Kantian philosophy, the act of perception is a private, subjective, and observer-dependent mechanism, which, by its nature, grants the subject a sensation of agency over the physical reality – their environment. This feeling of agency can be understood as the empowering subjective experience that is often translated into the individual’s freedom and autonomy. If it is true that the synthetical perception confers agency over the perceived objects as they are read into our reality, it must also be true that illusions – reasoning mistakes based on our perception – can be triggered if our perception follows systematic errors that occur whenever we store wrong information about our reality regarding perceived objects, or when we use the wrong model of perception to interpret the external world.[1]

What technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) or Artificial Intelligence (AI) will cause to our perception in the short and long-term is to convey analytical information from the physical world and thus trigger potential changes in our synthetical perception, which can lead to the loss of agency of our own our reality. Virtual Reality (VR), on the other hand, can trigger the same effect by deceiving the synthetical sensory feedback of our biological perception and replicating it through technological means.

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Disinformation overload on social networks: is the European “marketplace of ideas” threatening to collapse

On November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 By officialblogunioIn EssaysLeave a comment

Iolanda Rodrigues de Brito  (PhD, Lecturer at the Ius Gentium  Conimbrigae – Human Rights Centre)

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Disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict is flooding social networks, creating an increased risk of escalating the war.[1] Over the past few weeks, the European Commission has rushed to urge social media platforms to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force on 16 November 2022.[2] According to the European Commission, the DSA “sets out an unprecedented new standard for the accountability of online platforms regarding disinformation, illegal content, such as illegal hate speech, and other societal risks” and it “includes overarching principles and robust guarantees for freedom of expression and other users’ rights”.[3]

On 25 April 2023, the Commission had designated 19 very large online platforms and very large online search engines on the ground of their number of users being above 45 million or 10% of the European Union (EU) population. These services need to comply with the full set of provisions introduced by the DSA since the end of August 2023.[4] Although the new regulation will only be generally applicable from 17 February 2024, its applicability has been anticipated in relation to very large online search engines and very large online platforms, such as social networks (article 92 of the DSA).

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Summaries of judgments: Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri and Others (European arrest warrant issued against a third-country national) | Lin

On November 2, 2023 By officialblogunioIn Summaries of judgmentsLeave a comment

Summaries of judgments made in collaboration with the Portuguese judge and référendaire of the CJEU (Nuno Piçarra and Sophie Perez)

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Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 6 June 2023, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri and Others (European arrest warrant issued against a third-country national), Case C‑700/21, EU:C:2023:444

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Judicial cooperation in criminal matters – European arrest warrant – Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA – Grounds for optional non-execution of the European arrest warrant – Article 4(6) – Objective of social rehabilitation – Third-country nationals staying or residing on the territory of the executing Member State – Equal treatment – Article 20 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

Facts

On 13 February 2012, the Judecătoria Brașov (Court of First Instance, Brașov, Romania) issued a European arrest warrant (EAW) against O.G., a Moldovan national, for the purposes of executing a custodial sentence.

Finding that O.G. had proof that met the legal standard necessary to demonstrate his stable family and employment situation in Italy, the Corte d’appello di Bologna (Court of Appeal, Bologna, Italy) raised before the Corte costituzionale (Constitutional Court, Italy) questions as to the constitutionality of Article 18a of Law No 69/2005 (GURI No 98 of 29 April 2005).

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