EU law could usher in transformative change to digital ecosystems

Fairness by design

European Digital Rights (EDRi) is the largest European network of organisations defending rights and freedoms online, and are working on a position paper with their members on the DFA. They hope that the act will address exploitative practices often employed by Big Tech and ad tech intermediaries, which they say “exploit users’ vulnerabilities, undermine their autonomy, and disproportionately impact marginalised communities”.

One area of focus they have for the DFA is to ensure it adopts a rights-centred approach that recognises digital users not just as consumers, but as people with broader individual and collective rights.

“A core assumption underpinning this approach is that vulnerability is inherent to the digital realm as we know it today, driven by an imbalance of power and significant information asymmetries,” says Itxaso Dominguez, a policy adviser at EDRi.

To address these challenges, EDRi are advocating for embedding principles of “fairness by design” and “fairness by default” into the act. They hope this will ensure that fairness and respect for fundamental rights are integral to the development and operation of digital platforms and services, rather than optional considerations. 

Superrr Lab, an organisation advocating for just digital futures, recently published a position paper titled Digital fairness – shaping consumer protection in a just and future-proof way.

They too echo the desire for fairness by design and by default to be enshrined in the act: “The DFA will be most effective in truly enhancing digital rights if it addresses the root-causes of power imbalances in the digital realm. Consumers are humans with rights beyond markets and consumer protection law, and an effective DFA, should be shaped accordingly to ensure true digital fairness – in the sense of no discriminatory practices and opportunities for participation.”

The addictive nature of social media platforms is another digital design feature that the act could address, and an area where there is increasing public scrutiny, particularly in relation to its effects on children and young people’s mental wellbeing. Challenging this feature through policy could potentially address one of the main tenets of the industry’s extractive business model. 

“Commissioner for justice Michael McGrath has said it plainly: ‘They want to keep people online constantly, including our children, and this is how to get money from advertising’,” Rosie Morgan-Stuart, campaign and policy consultant for People Vs Big Tech, said. “Meanwhile, the evidence of harm is mounting. Binding rules are clearly needed, given the severity of the risks and Big Tech’s repeated refusal to prioritise safety over profit.”

Enforcement and real accountability

Better enforcement is another core ambition for the DFA. The Digital fairness fitness check report drew attention to the pervasive non-compliance popular among tech companies and social media platforms, and the need for real accountability. Earlier in 2024, the European Commission opened proceedings against Meta, Alphabet and Apple over their failure to effectively comply with their obligations under the existing Digital Markets Act (DMA).

“To make a real difference, the Digital Fairness Act needs to set out clear rules that are easy to understand, to apply and – if necessary – to enforce. Unfortunately, current EU law does not provide sufficient legal certainty in relation to unfair commercial practices online and therefore does not adequately protect consumers,” says Urs Buscke, senior legal officer at BEUC.

EDRi echo the need for more robust enforcement mechanisms and the prohibition of manipulative practices outright, rather than relying on voluntary compliance mechanisms, which have historically failed.

Aside from voluntary compliance mechanisms, gaps in enforcement have also persisted due to the fact that the existing directives covered by the fitness check do not contain any reporting obligations.

An ambitious digital future: breaking up Big Tech

Some believe the DFA could potentially break up the monopolies within the tech industry seen across some of the Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), which the DSA defines as platforms or search engines that have more than 45 million users per month in the EU. Instead, they advocate for a digital ecosystem that allows independent, third-party content curation and moderation services. 

“Unbundling the social networks could address many of the harms connected to addictive design and predatory data surveillance by providing consumers with a marketplace of options for recommender systems and other content curation tools,” says Katarzyna Szymielewicz, co-founder of freedom and privacy NGO Panoptykon Foundation. “This would also address the problematic nature of relying on VLOPs themselves as the arbiters of quality and credibility in ranking algorithms.”

On 16 January 2025, 18 former European presidents and prime ministers wrote to Von der Leyen urging the EC to pursue a structural breaking up of Google’s services to restore competition and end Google’s monopoly. 

“Forced breakups are do-able and have a long and distinguished record through modern history – from John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in 1911, to Germany’s gigantic IG Farben conglomerate after the Second World War, to AT&T in 1982,” says Claire Godfrey, executive director of Balanced Economy Project.

“They’ve just fallen out of favour. The US has proposed a break up of Google to fix the search monopoly, and the EU is in a position to support the US and break the tech giant’s monopoly over digital advertising. It needs the political will and courage more than anything.”

Despite the challenges, many of those Computer Weekly spoke with said the DFA could potentially result in transformative changes to the modern digital ecosystem. “The Digital Fairness Act offers a rare opportunity to set a global precedent, ensuring that fairness, transparency and accountability are embedded into the foundations of the digital ecosystem,” says Dominguez.

But this will only happen if policymakers strive to be bold. As Kim Van Spaarentak, GroenLinks MEP, urges: “We don’t have to accept the status quo. We can still fix our online environments if we dare to be ambitious enough. Alternatives are perfectly possible.

“If ethical design becomes the standard, the online space can be a fantastic place for knowledge-sharing, community forming and creativity. But whether the EU dares to go far enough is the big question for the next few years.”