Staatliche Regulierung digitaler Dienste im EU-Ausland

englischBefore the Digital Services Act (DSA) came into force, a number of legal provisions had been enacted in Germany with the aim of imposing obligations on the providers of large online platforms, most of which are based in other EU countries.

On the basis of selected provisions of the NetzDG, MStV, JMStV and JuSchG, Michael Otto Reitz analyses the extent to which national regulation of digital services restricts free movement in the internal market and violates the country of origin principle of the E-Commerce Directive (EC Directive). In particular, it examines whether the exception under Article 3(4) of the E-Commerce Directive also covers abstract-generic rules and whether the E-Commerce Directive applies at all to rules designed to ensure media pluralism.