Brussels, 3 December 2021
The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI) co-signs a joint statement by 25 business, consumer and civil society organisations, sounding the alarm on the current direction of the European Parliament’s negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA). In their current shape, some compromises would risk harming consumers and businesses, particularly offline SMEs.
We, the 25 organisations representing businesses and consumer and civil society groups, are deeply concerned by the current direction of the European Parliament’s negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and by the content of certain draft compromise amendments that exclude key platform services. We urge policymakers to avoid adopting a framework that presents significant risks for both consumer protection and businesses’ viability and reputation, especially for offline small and medium enterprises.
As they currently stand, the limited scope and content of several obligations would not sufficiently prevent illegal goods or services, such as counterfeit or unsafe goods, or illegal ticket resales, from reaching consumers, both misleading them and posing risks to their health and safety, and harming legitimate businesses who face unfair competition from rogue traders. The current draft compromises fail to take into account the reality of e-commerce today and are sometimes based on misconceptions or limited evidence.
More particularly, we strongly advocate against an exemption for small platforms as well as the introduction of a so-called “waiver” for medium platforms, from certain due diligence obligations. We also recommend broadening the scope of certain obligations, notably the Know Your Business Customer (KYBC) obligation, beyond traditional marketplaces; such a limited scope would both ignore the reality of today’s online commerce, and would allow rogue traders to move from pure online marketplaces to other types of platforms that face less stringent rules.
Read the joint statement: https://fesi-sport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211203-DSA-joint-industry-consumer-NGO-statement.pdf
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Contact: Ariane Gatti / FESI Communication Officer: [email protected] / Phone: +32 2 274 08 94
