Press releases

This Saturday marks the moment the Digital Services Act will apply in full to online platforms and marketplaces. Consumers will be better protected from rogue sellers, no longer have their sensitive or children’s data used for targeted ads, and can opt for more privacy regarding recommender systems.

Today, the European institutions have agreed to abolish the charges telecom operators can add when consumers call somebody based in another EU/EEA country, but only by 2029. This should mean that international intra-EU calls cost no more than the price of a domestic call.

Consumers are still frequently and perplexingly unable to access audiovisual content, such as films, sports events or TV shows, from another EU country despite geoblocking having been banned as a practice in 2018. This is due to a carve-out for the audiovisual and creative sectors in the original Geoblocking Regulation.

The EU institutions have agreed on the world’s first legislation to specifically regulate artificial intelligence, but the result is underwhelming given the breadth of risks consumers will be improperly protected from in the future.