The European Union establishes a new framework for the giants of the net, with specific rules to be respected. But what is a net giant? How do we define it? Who falls into this category? Then, what are the obligations to respect?
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is new European legislation that aims to set new rules for very large digital platforms. This will concern, among others, the GAFAs: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
What is a “net giant”?
Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple… these four companies, which are grouped under the acronym GAFA, are constantly cited as net giants, or web giants. They occupy a dominant position on the Internet, digital and tech. It is through them, via their services, their products and their equipment, that many Internet users pass.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive. It is also moving: sometimes new platforms break through, sometimes some collapse. For example, to the initial list of the four major American companies, we add Microsoft (which gives GAFAM) and Twitter. But, other glories of the past are no longer really, like Yahoo. So goes the net.
What essentially characterizes a net giant is its traffic, but no obvious threshold exists to distinguish it from other platforms. From this influx then follows other common traits: colossal income, considerable databases, exceptional storage capacities and an ability to influence the sector… and to destabilize it.
What is the European definition of a net giant?
If the expression “net giant” is common, we rather speak officially – at least in the European authorities – of VLOP (very large online platforms) or VLOSE (very large online search engines). That is, very large online platforms and very large online search engines. Here again, attendance is the differentiating criterion.
Arbitrarily, the European Union has established that a platform or a search engine falls into the VLOP or VLOSE categories from the moment it receives at least 45 million Internet users from the European Union each month. These 45 million are equivalent to 10% of the European population — the EU has around 450 million inhabitants.
In order to take into account the evolution of the popularity of platforms (new ones may emerge and others be neglected), this evaluation of the number of Internet users from the EU must be updated at least once every six months. . Indirectly, companies that evolve below the threshold of these 45 million will have to be attentive if they ever cross this bar.
Why is the EU interested in very large online platforms?
The VLOP and VLOSE formulations are used within the framework of a reform of European legislation, called DSA (Digital Services Act). This legislation on digital services aims to set a more demanding framework for Internet giants, precisely because they have considerable weight in their field and have a major influence on Internet users.
The DSA updates the European Union’s legal framework, which dates back to the year 2000, in response to the emergence of colossal digital companies over the past two decades. Their size is such that they are today accused of ignoring the rules or, at the very least, of taking advantage of loopholes in European law, to do business. The DSA intends to regain control.
The DSA focuses on the “internal functioning” of the Internet giants: obligations on the transparency of algorithms, new responsibilities, increased efforts on the removal of illegal content, etc. The DSA comes with another text, the DMA (Digital Market Act), which targets anti-competitive practices in the various sectors in which the Internet giants operate.
Who is a net giant (VLOP)?
The platforms had until February 17 to reveal their number of users. The official list will be published by the European Commission. It will ultimately determine who falls into these categories of very large platform or very large search engine. Brussels has asked all platforms to notify it of the attendance statistics.
Benoît Tabaka, head of public policy at Google France, has nevertheless done a preliminary work of synthesis, based precisely on the public responses of the various platforms. It emerges from this collection that there should be around fifteen VLOPs in Europe – this list remains to be confirmed by Brussels in the coming months:
- Aliexpress
- Amazon
- Booking
- Google Play
- Google Maps
- Google Shopping
- The iOS App Store
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- Wikipedia
- Youtube
What about search engines? Only two names emerge:
What rules apply to Internet giants?
Within the framework of the DSA, there are different typologies of digital players. There are intermediary services, hosting services, online platforms and very large online platforms. The obligations for each and every one are cumulative: the more one progresses in this classification, the more the rules pile up, with increasingly strong particular requirements.
There are about twenty obligations in all, but there are six in particular that only affect VLOP and VLOSE:
- Risk management obligations and crisis response;
- External and independent audit, internal compliance audit function and public accountability;
- Choice of users not to have recommendations based on profiling;
- Sharing data with authorities and researchers;
- Codes of conduct;
- Cooperation in crisis response.
What’s next on the schedule?
The Digital Services Act was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on October 27, 2022 and entered into force on November 16. However, its effects are not yet immediate: it is first necessary to define who falls into the VLOP and VLOSE categories (hence the deadline of February 17 and the four-month period that Brussels takes to designate them).
The next major deadline is therefore the publication of the European Commission’s list. Then, the next step will occur on February 17, 2024. At that time, the DSA will fully come into effect. The rules contained in this law on digital services must be respected by the Internet giants, under penalty of being subject to very heavy penalties… even banishment.
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