The digital future of the European Union: new categories of online intermediaries, new forms of liability

Abstract

The “digital package” proposed by the European Commission in December 2020 marks the affirmation of the Union as a center of sovereign power over the digital environment, not only with respect to the large multinational companies that manage the flow of information on the Internet, but also with respect to the national States, which are gradually losing the possibility to regulate the phenomena occurring online independently. To achieve this goal, the European Commission has moved mainly along three lines: 1) the data sharing for the development of artificial intelligence systems; 2) a greater control over gatekeepers (i.e., digital platforms that can condition access to the market) in order to prevent them from abusing their dominant position; 3) a greater accountability of digital intermediaries for the contents produced and disseminated by the end users of their services, paying particular attention to large-scale platforms. This undermines the principle of provider neutrality, sanctioned by the European directive on electronic commerce dating back to 2000. Through the reaffirmation of its digital sovereignty, the European Union seems to reclaim its nature as an area of rights and freedom, capable to ensure an anthropocentric and personalist governance of innovation.