Publication details
Digital Services Act and the Brussels Effect, a transatlantic culture clash in platform liability
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| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Liability of online platforms is among the traditionally controversial topics of digital regulation. On the American shores, these discussions resonate with arguments of free speech and libertarian approach to regulating corporations. Conversely, European discussions highlight the accountability for speech and environment that online platforms create. Resulting regulatory patchwork naturally differs. Yet, the European move towards DSA sparked numerous discussions on its suitability and extraterritorial effect from outside the EU, including a political outcry from the US. This presentation poses a research question, why has the DSA failed to generate a comparable Brussels effect to GDPR and instead triggered strong transatlantic resistance. We adopt the perspective of Lessig’s regulatory modalities to understand the tension between legal, social and market regulation. Further we apply the Brussels effect theory to understand the extraterritorial effects of European legislation. Our answer then employs doctrinal understanding of legal regulation with law and economics analysis of digital markets. Our analysis leads to introduction of additional element to Bradford’s model of Brussels effect. Bradford introduced five original elements contributing to occurrence of Brussels effect, i.e., “market size, regulatory capacity, stringent standards, inelastic targets, and non-divisibility”. Additionally, we conclude that strong indication of Brussels effect and an additional element is an alignment between European legal regulation and target country social regulation, i.e., general public discourse and public opinion as to how should be certain behaviour regulated. |
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