France seeks compromise on targeted advertising, marketplaces, systemic risks

As negotiations around the Digital Services Act (DSA) continue, France seeks compromises around key topics. On targeted advertising, the initial texts prohibit any targeting of minors. The problem of how to identify minors arises since the definition of minors differs across national laws and the DSA doesn’t contain a clarification. Furthermore, to avoid allowing companies to collect information before the user use the platform to assess their age or other sensitive information, the compromised texts only ask platforms to abide by obligations against targeting minors when they are aware of the user’s age. On online marketplaces, the French Presidency led by the Digital Minister Cédric O proposed that vendors are solely responsible for providing truthful information while platforms must make their “best efforts” to obtain relevant information from the vendors. Some countries are concerned with how these rules would interact with existing customer protection mechanisms. On systemic risks, the French government proposed adding obligations for platforms to mitigate risks of gender-related violence, public health, minors and the physical and mental wellbeing of persons.

Source: Euractiv