EU Taking Legal Action Against Member States for Not Enforcing Internet Policing Law

European Commission to take Czech Republic, Spain, Cyprus, Poland, and Portugal to Court of Justice for not designating Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcers.

Computer monitors and a laptop display the sign-in page of X, formerly known as Twitter, in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 24, 2023. Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo

The European Commission has referred the Czech Republic, Spain, Cyprus, Poland, and Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to implement the Digital Services Act (DSA) effectively.

The landmark law aims to enforce rigorous content moderation by requiring social media platforms to remove illegal content, conduct risk assessments, prevent harmful activities online, and curb the spread of “disinformation.”

In a statement on May 7, the commission blasted the five nations for not designating a national digital services coordinator, agents who are responsible for supervising, enforcing, and monitoring the law.

The law typically zeroes in on major platforms like Google, Meta, and X, but member states that fail to implement its provisions may also face legal action by the commission.

Poland didn’t appoint a coordinator. The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Spain, and Portugal did, though they failed to give their coordinators the authority needed to enforce the law. None of these countries set out any penalties for breaking DSA’s rules.

The commission said that since these member states have not taken the necessary measures, it has decided to refer them to the Court of Justice.

In January, under a revised code of conduct on online speech, the European Commission said that Big Tech signatories must allow a network of “monitoring reporters” that are nonprofit or public entities with expertise on illegal hate speech to regularly monitor how the signatories are reviewing hate notices.

They will have to review at least two-thirds of hate speech notices received from monitoring reporters within 24 hours.

The EU also wants signatories to present “country-level data broken down by the internal classification of hate speech (such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation).”

Some of the monitoring reporters include Amnesty International Italia, German organization HateAid, and the French Ministry of the Interior’s dedicated portal to cybercrime, PHAROS.

The DSA and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) form a single set of rules under a package that applies across the EU.

The DMA is focused on ensuring fair and open digital markets, whether they are established within or outside the EU, regulating the gatekeeper power of the largest digital companies.

Companies can be fined up to 10 percent of their annual worldwide turnover for a first offense and up to 20 percent for repeat violations.

Europe’s digital laws have become a flashpoint in tariff negotiations, with the EU maintaining that it will not make any concessions on its digital and technology rules.

The EU faces 25 percent U.S. import tariffs on its steel, aluminum, and cars and reciprocal tariffs of 10 percent for almost all other goods. That could rise further after President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause expires on July 8.

Peter Navarro, White House senior trade adviser, accused the EU of waging “lawfare” against U.S. tech giants in a Financial Times op-ed last month.

“These tools include currency manipulation, value added tax distortions, dumping, export subsidies, state-owned enterprises, IP theft, discriminatory product standards, quotas, bans, opaque licensing regimes, burdensome customs procedures, data localisation mandates and, increasingly, the use of ‘lawfare’ in places like the EU to target America’s largest tech firms,” Navarro wrote.

A Meta spokesperson said at the time, “This is not just about fines—it’s about the commission seeking to handicap successful American businesses simply because they’re American, while letting Chinese and European rivals off the hook.”

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic, commenting on the trade negotiations on May 6, told the European Parliament: “We do not feel weak. We do not feel under undue pressure to accept a deal, which would not be fair for us.

“All options remain on the table here.”

Reuters contributed to this report.