Brussels, 25 April 2022: Classifieds Marketplaces Europe (CME) welcomes the agreement reached on 23 April by negotiators of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the Digital Services Act (DSA).
CME supports the balanced approach adopted by the co-legislators, which encompasses the needs of both businesses and consumers. Although the final text has not yet been published, legislators seem to have done a good job of reflecting the variety of online platforms, which means that the DSA will enable the growth of consumer to consumer (C2C) second hand trade – which is so important to the achievement of Europe’s ambitious environmental agenda and to the cohesion of local communities.
The coalition also welcomes the 15-month implementation period that provides more time for all stakeholders to ensure compliance and prepare for supervision and enforcement.
When enforcing the new rules for online marketplaces, in particular, ‘know-your-business-customer’ obligations including random checks, we urge the Digital Service Coordinators to take into account the specificities of online classifieds marketplaces and the role they play in the circular economy.
Being a large regulatory package, it will require effective enforcement and implementation. We encourage the European Commission to make use of their competence to adopt delegated acts to provide additional specifications for the methodology for calculating the number of average monthly active recipients taking into account the different business models of platforms as well as a possible geographical scope, such as being active in at least three Member States.
Carolin Wehrhahn, chair of CME and Director of EU Public Affairs at Adevinta says: “We congratulate the European Commission, the Parliament and the Council on reaching an agreement on this important file, shaping the future of digital services, including online classifieds marketplaces. We trust that the new regulation will allow us to continue to empower consumers and (small) businesses alike and help effectively protect the users of our marketplaces from illegal content.”
Additional information:
Carolin Wehrhahn, CME chair, carolin.wehrhahn@adevinta.com