Proposal for the reform of the regulation of digital services

Abstract

Digital services increasingly compete against legacy services in markets where only legacy services are regulated. As a consequence, consumers face inconsistent protection standards; security duties are unevenly fulfilled; and companies experience unfair competition. Old rules are no longer adequate yet still apply, while new issues are not addressed and require action. This paper recommends reforming the current European legal framework adopting a comprehensive horizontal new vision to the digital single market. Based on the creation of a digital services category and the reclassification of traditional communication services, this paper sketches up how current regulatory principles could be applied to these reorganized categories granting the application of similar rules to similar services.