FESI has commented with approval on the preliminary political agreement reached on April 23 between the EU Parliament and Council on the Digital Services Act (DSA) proposal. The agreement paves the way for a safer and fairer online environment by strengthening the liability of online platforms for illegal content, especially counterfeit products, according to the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry.
“Less than 16 months after the Commission’s proposal, we are glad to see that the Parliament and the Council have managed to reach an agreement on the DSA. This regulation has been long-awaited by the sporting goods industry and FESI has been strongly advocating to make sure the DSA effectively tackles the presence of counterfeit products online. Even if some points still need to be further clarified at a technical level, we are overall satisfied with the progress made so far,” commented Jérôme Pero, FESI’s secretary-general.
In particular, FESI applauded that the negotiators appear to have reached an agreement on the extension of the “Trusted Flaggers” provision to individual rights holders. As advocated by the federation, individual trademark owners such as FESI members are in the best position to determine the illegality of their own products, and their exclusion from the scope would have seriously undermined the effectiveness of the provision. We now call for further clarification during the technical review of the text to ensure that the definition clearly removes any reference to “collective interests.” FESI also welcomes that online marketplaces will now be required to inform their customers if they have purchased an illegal product, such as a counterfeit. In fact, currently misled consumers often blame the original brand for the poor quality of the illegal product they buy, even though the brands have nothing to do with it.
While FESI is pleased that the Parliament’s proposal to keep reported illegal content online during the review process has been abandoned, it laments that no stay-down obligation has been added to the notice and action mechanism. “We also regret that the exception for micro and small businesses provided for in Article 17 has been retained. As advocated in the past, the DSA obligations aim to be proportionate, and we see no reason why certain companies should not enforce the rules. If some platforms cannot be held accountable, there is a risk that counterfeiters will move from the large platforms to the smaller ones to sell their illegal products,“ FESI wrote in its statement.
FESI now looks forward to completing the technical work on the DSA and hopes that the EU negotiators will fulfill their commitment to ensuring that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online.“ FESI will continue to work on the DSA. It will continue to advocate for stronger EU legislation, policies and practices that better protect intellectual property rights, particularly in light of the anti-counterfeiting toolkit expected by the end of 2022.
