Has France gone too far in its desire for better supervision of the digital sector? The European Commission has directly warned Paris about the compliance with community law of two recent legislative initiatives aimed at regulating the digital economy and social networks, AFP confirmed with a European official on Friday. “On August 14, the Commission actually sent a letter to France concerning the provisions aimed at regulating influencers and those aimed at establishing a digital majority,” indicated this European official in Brussels.
“The objective is to preserve the integrity of the internal market, both in the compliance of the laws of all Member States with the DSA and in their implementation,” he added. The Digital Services Act (DSA), Brussels’ superweapon for regulating the internet, has applied directly throughout the European Union since August. It “also provides for a clear monitoring and enforcement system, with a distribution of skills between the national authorities and the Commission,” insisted this source.
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However, according to the media L’Informé, which cites extracts from the letter sent by European Commissioner Thierry Breton to Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, the European executive considers that the laws promulgated seem to “contradict” the DSA, and calls on the government to repeal the promulgated provisions. At the beginning of August, Thierry Breton had already indicated before the European Parliament that “Member States should refrain from adopting national legislation which would duplicate” European rules, “or which would create stricter or more detailed provisions in the regulatory areas concerned.
The proposed law on digital majority, tabled by the majority deputy Laurent Marcangeli and adopted during the summer, plans to oblige social networks to verify that their users aged under fifteen have parental authorization. The text was promulgated on July 7 but the government has not yet published the decree allowing it to come into force. The entourage of Minister Delegate for Digital Jean-Noël Barrot did not respond to requests from AFP on this subject.
The proposed law on commercial influence, which includes certain obligations for platforms to report and delete illegal content, was tabled at the beginning of the year by deputies Arthur Delaporte (PS) and Stéphane Vojetta (Renaissance) and adopted in June under an accelerated procedure. The government is currently defending before the National Assembly a bill on the regulation of the digital space.