Intermediary Liability in the EU Digital Common Market from the E-Commerce Directive to the Digital Services Act

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Thomas Hoffmann
Department of Law, School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology
Sander Sagar
Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech)

The European Union is committed to its transition towards climate neutrality and digital leadership, and synergies to be created in the EU Digital Common Market provide ample opportunities to achieve these goals: While from an economic perspective, the maximisation of market opportunities and the creation of a globally competitive digital economy are desirable, the transition must be technologically and ecologically sustainable and additionally compatible with established EU consumer protection standards. The latter is especially relevant in terms of the liability of online intermediaries for digital services, taking into account the rapid transformation of the digital architecture and the emergence of new major digital platforms for sales and services. This chapter, which is based on the Bachelor thesis handed in by Sander Sagar and supervised by Thomas Hoffmann for graduation at TalTech Law School, Tallinn University of Technology, intends to elucidate how the transition towards a common digital market is legally established in practice using as an example the adoption of the intermediaries’ liability regime to a digitalized environment from the E-Commerce Directive to the Digital Services Act.

Keywords
digital common market, intermediaries’ liability, e-commerce directive, digital services act

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How to Cite
Hoffmann, Thomas; and Sagar, Sander. “Intermediary Liability in the EU Digital Common Market: from the E-Commerce Directive to the Digital Services Act”. IDP. Internet, Law and Politics E-Journal, no. 34, pp. 1-12, doi:10.7238/idp.v0i34.387691.
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(c) Thomas Hoffmann, Sander Sagar, 2021


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Author Biographies

Thomas Hoffmann, Department of Law, School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology

Tenured Assistant Professor of Private Law at the Department of Law (TalTech Law School) at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. He graduated (2005) and also obtained his Ph.D. in law at the University of Heidelberg (2006). After his admission to the German bar in 2008 and obtaining an LL.M. in Polish business law from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, he worked as an associated lawyer in the real estate department of Noerr LLP in their offices in Kyiv and Berlin. Consecutively he became a research fellow at the Institute of East European Law in Kiel, Germany (2009), where he had special research focus on international insolvency law. In 2011, he relocated to the University of Tartu (Estonia) to be appointed DAAD Lecturer in Law. He became Associate Professor at the Department of Law (TalTech Law School) in 2016 before he was elected Assistant Professor of Private law at the same institute in 2019. Thomas’ research focuses on comparative private law, here especially in insolvency law, private international law, contracts in digital environments and consumer law. He provided comprehensive research on Estonian, German and international law to various stakeholders within numerous EC tenders. Thomas keeps track of forensic issues by serving as Of Counsel for the firm bnt Attorneys in CEE in Tallinn. A list of his publications is available at: http://bit.ly/1fz4RkT.

Sander Sagar, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech)

Graduated in his BA studies in law at the Department of Law (TalTech Law School) at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, in Summer 2021 with distinction. His main fields of research focused so far on EU Law, Consumer Law, the E-Commerce Directive and the Digital Services Act. After graduation, Sander has been an intern at the Law Firm Sorainen at the Competition and Regulatory law department.

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