Digitalisation & Technological Innovation in Europe: Impact on Core Values, Regulation & Enforcement

Digitalization & technological innovation in Europe

Digitalisation and developments in technological innovation (‘DTI’) engage the whole spectrum of the domains of law, including EU internal market law, competition law, fundamental rights, data protection law, consumer law, regulation of financial markets, and criminal and international law.

The speed of technological change and innovation raises the question of whether the law can and should keep pace with technological development and be future-proof. Meanwhile, the lines between the public and private domains in the era of digitalisation are increasingly blurring, and there are no physical borders in a digital market, which makes transnational regulation and enforcement within the EU essential – yet other types of borders may be erected.

Digitalisation has also become an increasingly relevant aspect of EU policy and the Union’s identity. In other parts of the world the EU is often considered to be the champion of regulation: take for instance the GDPR, the Digital Services Act Package of the European Commission with the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, the antitrust proceedings against Google, and the ambitious proposal on cross-border access to electronic evidence in criminal matters. It is to be expected that the importance of digitalisation within the EU’s policy agenda will only grow.

The aim of this project is to analyse and understand the effects of the growth of digital technologies and innovation on basic principles of the law and on core values, along with the needs this phenomenon creates for regulation and enforcement. This project’s ambition is to be at the forefront and to impact these developments through research.

Upcoming events

4 November 2022: Workshop – Future-proof Regulation and Enforcement for the Digitalised Age

Output of the DTI Europe building block

2022

Neilson, T. & Balasingham, B., ‘Big Tech and News: A Critical Approach to Digital Platforms, Journalism, and Competition Law’ in S. Bannerman and J. Meese (eds.), Algorithmic Distribution of the News: Policy Responses (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming in 2022)

2021

Biemans, J.W.A. & Laaper, P., Regulation of FinTech in the Netherlands, in: F. Möslein & S. Omlor, FinTech-Handbuch. Digitalisierung Recht Finanzen, Verlag C.H. Beck 2021

Van Dijck, J., de Winkel, T. & Schaefer, M. (2021). Deplatformization and the governance of the platform ecosystem. New Media & Society. Online first: DOI: 10.1177/14614448211045662

Van Dijck, J. (2021) Governing trust in European platform societies: Introduction to the special issue. European Journal of Communication 36(4): 323-333. DOI: 10.1177/02673231211028378

Kerssens, N. & Van Dijck, J. (2021). The platformization of primary education in The Netherlands. Learning, Media & Technology, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2021.1876725

Farinhas, C., “The Interplay between EU Law and WTO Law: When the Legality of EU Acts is at Stake” in Lenaerts et al (Eds.) Building the European Union, The Jurist’s View of the Union’s Evolution, Hart Publishing, 2021

Farinhas, C., “Casino, Guichard-Perrachon and AMC v Commission, Intermarché Casino Achats v Commission, Les Mousquetaires and ITM Entreprises v Commission: The Commission’s Powers of Inspection are Examined in the Light of the Charter”, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, Volume 12, Issue 2, 2021

Gargantini, M., ‘The European Regulation of Securities Exchanges. Regulated Markets in an Evolving Technological and Legal Context’, Giappichelli (Series: Diritto dell’Economia), Turin, 2021, IX-207

Harrison, R., ‘Tackling Disinformation in Times of Crisis: The European Commission’s Response to the Covid-19 Infodemic and the Feasibility of a Consumer-centric Solution’, Utrecht Law Review 17(3), pp. 18-33

Robinson, G. & Masson, A. (eds), Mapping Legal Innovation: Trends and Perspectives, Mar 2021, Springer International Publishing. 413 p.

Robinson, G. & Ligeti, K., 'Sword, Shield and Cloud: Toward a European System of Public-Private Orders for Electronic Evidence in Criminal Matters?' in Mitsilegas, V. & Vavoula, N. (eds.) Surveillance and Privacy in the Digital Age: European, Translatlantic and Global Perspectives. Hart, Oxford, p. 27-70 43 p. (Hart Studies in European Criminal Law).

De Vries, S., ‘Editorial for the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Shortcomings and Strengths of the EU Legal System in Selected Policy Domains’, Utrecht Law Review 17(3), pp. 1-5

De Vries, S. et al, Covid and EU Law, Special Issue: Utrecht Law Review, 17(3), 2021.

2020

Balasingham, B., Big Data and Competition Analysis under Australian Competition Law: Comeback of the Structuralist Approach?’ Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, published on 21 December 2020.

Balasingham, B., ‘Hybrid Restraints and Hybrid Tests under US Antitrust and EU Competition Law’ (2020) 43 World Competition 261

Van Dijck, J. & Alinejad, D. (2020). Social Media and trust in scientific expertise: Debating the Covid-19 Pandemic in The Netherlands. Social Media & Society, doi:10.1177/2056305120981057

Van Dijck, J. (2020). Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Visualizing Platformization and its Governance. New Media & Society 23 (9): 2801-2819.

Gargantini, M., ‘Prospectus Liability. Competent Courts of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law’, in BUSCH, Danny, FERRARINI, Guido and FRANX, Jan Paul, Prospectus Regulation and Prospectus Liability, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, 441-464

Kanetake, M., ‘Converging Dual-Use Export Control with Human Rights Norms: The EU’s Responses to Digital Surveillance Exports’, in Elaine Fahey (ed.), Framing Convergence with the Global Legal Order: The EU and the World (Hart Publishing, 2020), pp. 65-81. (17 pages)

2019

Van Dijck, J. (2019). Governing digital societies: private platforms, public values. Computer Law & Security Review

Farinhas, C., “Access to confidential information in the financial and banking sectors: Judgements of the Court of Justice in Altmann, Baumeister, UBS and Buccioni”, Law and Financial Markets Review, Volume 13, Issue 4, 2019

Gargantini, M., ‘Corporate Governance, Financial Information and EU Market Abuse Regulation’, in BUSCH, Danny, FERRARINI, Guido and VAN SOLINGE, Gerard (eds.), Corporate Governance of Financial Institutions, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019, 284-306 (with DI NOIA, Carmine)

Kanetake, M., ‘The EU’s Dual-Use Export Control and Human Rights Risks: The Case of Cyber Surveillance Technology’, Europe and the World: A Law Review (UCL Press, 2019), vol. 3, pp. 1-16. [16 pages, peer reviewed, open access]

Laaper, P., The Cross-Sectoral Playing Field in Outsourcing, in: V. Colaert, D. Busch & T. Incalza, European Financial Regulation – Levelling the Cross-Sectoral Playing Field, Hart Publishing 2019

Laaper, P. & Busch, D., The Dutch Banker’s Oath and the Dutch Banking Disciplinary Committee, in: D. Busch, G. Ferrarini & G. van Solinge, Governance of financial institutions, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2019

Laaper, P. & van Meerten, H., De (rechts)positie van het verantwoordingsorgaan en zijn leden, TPV 2019/2

Robinson, G., 'A Democratic Dénouement? The EU vs Terrorist Content Online | Um desfecho democrático? A União Europeia vs conteúdo terrorista online', Publicum, 5, 2, p. 184-200

2018

Kanetake, M., ‘Balancing Innovation, Development and Security: Dual-Use Concepts in Export Control Laws’ in N. Craik, C. Jefferies, S. Seck, and T. Stephens (eds.), Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 180-200. [21 pages, peer-reviewed]

Laaper, P. & van Deursen, S., Eerlijk proces versus bescherming van persoonsgegevens in het bankentuchtrecht, Tijdschrift voor Financieel Recht 2018, p. 646-656

10 February 2022 – Promises and dangers of influencing users’ behavior online

An interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners will bring together perspectives to better define the promises and dangers of influencing users’ behavior online, and reflect on the necessary regulation in addressing emerging challenges. The event will include a keynote speech by Prof. Nicolo Zingales, followed by two stimulating panel discussions. This event is organized in collaboration with Utrecht University’s focus area Governing the Digital Society, The Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE) and the Modern Bigness research group. See for more information.

17 November 2021 – Workshop on ‘Facial Recognition Technology: Challengers for International Collaboration & Governance’, organised by Strategic Interest Group (SIG) ‘Principles by Design’, UGlobe and RENFORCE. See for workshop report and interviews with participants

7 April 2021, there was a Governing the Digital Society / RENFORCE talk with Michal Gal (hosted by Thibault Schrepel): "Do our Privacy Laws Strengthen the already Strong?"

8 February 2021 RENFORCE rencontre with Cristiana Teixeira Santos: "The legal requirements for consent and related dark patterns”. This webinar addressed the use of online tracking technologies (cookies and similar technologies such as browser fingerprinting), which requires websites to ask consent of EU user’s while they surf the web, most commonly through the use of consent banners where users express their choices to tracking. Even if the consent ecosystem has been refined in recent years and became the business model of consent management platforms (CMPs), at the very end, consent always needs to be compliant. But what makes a cookie consent banner compliant with the EU Law? What banners website publishers, CMPs, and other industrial players should build up to collect the subject's consent for processing personal data and be compliant by design and by default? The webinar presented both the legal and technical requirements for consent banners and described how banners are supposed to be implemented to be fully compliant with the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR.

17 December 2020 Webinar: Disinformation: The EU Commission’s Response to the COVID-19 Infodemic and the Feasibility of a Consumer-Centric Solution. This webinar followed up on a blog post published by Ruairí Harrison on how the EU Commission has tackled the ever-evolving issue of online disinformation thus far. Ruairí opened the webinar with a presentation of this blog post, looking at the history of disinformation, how EU consumers were impacted by the Covid-19 Infodemic and what role these same consumers could have in future disinformation regulation. Ruairí finally analysed the possible short- and long-term solutions to online disinformation open to EU lawmakers ahead of the EU’s upcoming Digital Services Act. Bram Duivenvoorde followed up on this with some reflections on the blog post and the topic more generally. To conclude, the presenters opened the floor to discussion and questions on this exciting, contentious issue.

1 December 2020, ‘Big tech firms: monopolies, gatekeepers or systemic actors?’
Webinar hosted by Thibault Schrepel. He invited Nicolas Petit, Professor of European Competition Law at European University Institute. Nicolas shared his thoughts on whether big tech firms are monopolies, gatekeepers, or systemic actors and explain why that’s not that simple.

18 September 2020, Algorithmic Content Moderation – An online expert meeting - Stefan Kulk will hosted a Governing the Digital Society online expert meeting on the use of algorithms for content moderation. A topic of great interest, especially now that pressure from the EU on platforms to moderate illegal and harmful content is rising and platforms like Facebook and YouTube already use algorithms to filter out content that for example qualifies as hate speech or copyright infringement.

13 February 2020, ‘The Wiretapping of Things’ seminar – Our first event started with a guest lecture by Dr. Eldar Haber based on his most recent paper "The Wiretapping of Things", followed by reactions from Machiko Kanetake, Veronika Nagy and Stefan Kulk as commentators from different disciplines. Inter alia, questions were raised whether the current legal framework that governs stored communication and wiretapping, originally designed for computers and telephones, is still relevant for these new technological developments, and what the solution might be. Moreover, discussed were both the consequences for society, as well as the responsibility of the collective and of individuals.

20^th of March 2020 Seminar with Vassilis Hatzopoulos (University of Athens) on Collaborative Economy

19^th and 20^th of June 2019 – EuroDIG concerfence on “Cooperation in the Digital Age" This conference was hosted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the Netherlands in cooperation with ECP – Netherlands Platform for the Information Society, the Municipality of The Hague and SIDN – the .nl domain registry. Stanislaw Tosza was one of the key speakers in the conference panel on "Criminal justice in cyberspace – more of everything?". This panel, in particular, addressed the overall theme of criminal justice in cyberspace in three distinct areas of discussion: regulations, access to data, and technical aspects. The in-depth discussion on this topic can be found in a transcript online, or viewed in video form!

11^th of June 2019 - Seminar on E-evidence in the U.K. and EU On the 11th of June the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London hosted a seminar entitled "E-evidence - Developments in the U.K. and EU Criminal Law". One of the speakers was Stanislaw Tosza. The seminar was centered on the European Commission’s proposal on cross-border access to E-evidence and its effects in the U.K. and the EU more broadly. The speakers discussed the CLOUD Act and the recent regulations establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the area of justice and home affairs, which have already brought about human rights concerns.

22^nd of May 2019 - Conference on Multi-Level Regulatory Systems
Stanislaw Tosza spoke at a conference in Luxembourg entitled “Enforcement Challenges in Multi-Level Regulatory Systems: Mapping the Landscapes”. His presentation discussed the EU Commission e-evidence initiative, specifically regarding internet service providers as enforcers and defenders of fundamental rights. The presentation was part of a larger panel on "New challenges and proliferation of enforcers".