Regulation of Online Platforms in the EU Digital Single Market: Opportunities for the EAEU

The paper analyzes the formation and development of the EU Digital Single Market, as well as the specifics of online platforms regulation in the EU, taking into account the judicial practice formed by the EU Court. It is concluded that EU regulatory legal acts do not always provide sufficient regulation from the point of view of harmonization of national rules in the field of the digital market. In this regard, a special role is assigned to the EU Court of Justice in interpreting EU regulatory legal acts and elimination of gaps in the law. The author concludes that the European Commission on the Digital Single Market quite often uses the message format to broadcast its decisions, which indicates that it does not have executive powers at the EU level. The same is true for the EEC, which operates at the EAEU level. The EU legal acts regulating the activities of online platforms and the digital market as a whole are more detailed, unlike those legal acts that operate in the EAEU and are essentially programmatic, denoting topical issues and common vectors of development. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union creates a regulatory legal framework for the implementation of the program to create a Digital Single Market of the EAEU. In this regard, the EAEU should increase the intensity of interaction within the legal framework of the common market of goods, services, capital and labor, create universal concepts and models based on the experience of the E, in particular, the concept of «know your business client». It is necessary to take into account the specifics of the EAEU region increasing the role of the EAEU Court in the formation of the general legal model of the functioning of the Digital Single Market. Given the new reality of political and economic relations, the creation and development of the EAEU Digital Single Market is an important point for ensuring digital and economic sovereignty.

1. Dvenadtsatova T. Onlayn-platformy i edinyy tsifrovoy rynok ES: podvodnye kamni regulirovaniya [Online platforms and the EU single digital market: regulatory pitfalls]. Available from: https://zakon.ru/ blog/2016/02/20/onlajnplatformy_i_edinyj_cifrovoj_rynok_es_podvodnye_kamni_regulirovaniya [cited 2022 October 13]. (In Russ.).

2. Zvyagintsev SE. Vozmozhnosti ispolzovaniya Evraziyskim ekonomicheskim soyuzom opyta pravovogo regulirovaniya Edinogo tsifrovogo rynka Evropeyskogo Soyuza: magisterskaya dissertatsiya. [Opportunities for the Eurasian Economic Union to use the experience of legal regulation of the Digital Single Market of the European Union. Master’s Degree thesis]. Moscow; 2021. Available from: https://zakon.ru/Publication/ vozmozhnosti_ispolzovaniya_eaes_opyta_pravovogo_regulirovaniya_edinogo_cifrovogo_rynka_es [cited 2022 October 13]. (In Russ.).

3. Orlova YuM, Malina EV. Perspektivy i nedostatki pravovogo regulirovaniya tsifrovogo rynka uslug v ES [Prospects and disadvantages of legal regulation of the digital services market in the EU]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta imeni N.I. Lobachevskogo [Vestnik of Lobachevsky University of Nizhni Novgorod]. 2021;2:140-159. (In Russ.).

4. Parfenova LB. Evropeyskaya strategiya razvitiya tsifrovoy ekonomiki: regionalnaya differentsiatsiya [European strategy for the development of the digital economy: Regional differentiation]. Vestnik Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya «Ekonomika i upravlenie» [Herald of TvSU. Economics and Management]. 2018;3:30-38. (In Russ.).

5. Revenko NS. Evropeyskiy Soyuz na puti k edinomu tsifrovomu rynku [The European Union on the way to a digital single market]. Mir novoy ekonomiki [The World of New Economy]. 2016;2:6-22. (In Russ.).

6. Sakovich OM, Solovyova SV, Shcherbak SS, et al. Pravovoe regulirovanie elektronnoy torgovli v zarubezhnykh stranakh: monografiya [Legal regulation of electronic commerce in foreign countries: A monograph]. Edited by Semilyutin NG, Ternovaya OA. IZiSP pri Pravitelstve RF [IZiSP under the Government of the Russian Federation]. Moscow: Kontrakt Publ.; 2019. (In Russ.).

7. Entin VL. Intellektualnaya sobstvennost v prave Evropeyskogo Soyuza [Intellectual Property in the European Union Law]. Moscow: Statut Publ.; 2018. (In Russ.).

8. Alvarez Leon LF. A blueprint for market construction? Spatial data infrastructure(s), interoperability, and the EU Digital Single Market. Geoforum. 2018;92:45-57.

9. Kramer J, Schnurr D. Is there a need for platform neutrality regulation in the EU? Telecommunications Policy. 2018;42:514-529.

10. Laux J, Wachter S, Mittelstadt B. Taming the few: Platform regulation, independent audits, and the risks of capture created by the DMA and DSA. Computer law & Security review. 2021;43. Available from: https:// papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4096655 [cited 2022 October 13].

11. Savin A. Regulating internet platforms in the EU — The emergence of the «Level playing Field». Computer law & Security review. 2018;34:1215-1231.