Orientation
The EU Digital Services & Platforms Legal Ecosystem — Map
A layered map of the instruments in this area and how they stack.
The EU digital services & platforms legal ecosystem
Work in progress. This area of the knowledge base is a structured stub: the instrument list and key dates below are drawn from primary sources, but the deep dives are still being written. Anything marked ⚠️ VERIFY has not been independently confirmed.
EU platform regulation rests on a small number of horizontal instruments that regulate intermediary services (hosting, marketplaces, search, social networks) and the largest gatekeeper platforms:
| Layer | Question it answers | Main instruments |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Intermediary liability & duties | What must online intermediaries do about illegal content and systemic risk? | Digital Services Act (DSA) |
| 2. Gatekeeper competition | What can the largest platforms not do to business users and rivals? | Digital Markets Act (DMA) |
| 3. Platform-to-business fairness | How must platforms treat the businesses that depend on them? | P2B Regulation 2019/1150 |
| 4. Adjacent | Consumer, media, data and AI layers that intersect with platforms | Consumer acquis, EMFA ⚠️ VERIFY, GDPR (see Data & Privacy area), AI Act (see AI area) |
Where to start
- DSA — the horizontal duty-of-care framework for all intermediaries, with extra obligations for very large online platforms and search engines (VLOPs/VLOSEs).
- DMA — ex-ante conduct rules for designated gatekeepers.
- P2B Regulation — transparency and fairness towards business users; the precursor to both.