The Potential of Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act to Provide a Meaningful Legal Framework for Collaborative Economy Platforms in the EU

Law in the Age of Digital Technologies / Francesca C. Villata, Mirela Župan, Katarina Trimmings, Giulia Gabrielli. - Milano: Milano University Press, 2025., s. 233-253.

Collaborative economy platforms (such as Uber or Airbnb) have been in the past under scrutiny by the Court of Justice of the EU under the frame-work of the Services Directive. With the conclusion of the rulings in Uber and Airbnb cases that their activities remain outside of the scope of this legislation. Simultaneously, the former E-Commerce Directive might not provide solu-tions adapted to the innovative models of peer-to-peer platforms and services. Hence, a legal vacuum might materialize in which the activity of the operators of the collaborative economy platforms on the Internal Market would remain outside the scope of the EU law. Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act entered into force in November 2022. The new EU legislation was intended to introduce responsibility requirements for platform operators, regulate the activity of ‘gatekeepers’ and will provide the legal framework for the operation of the biggest digital platforms in the Internal Market. The question emerges – to what extent this regulation would provide a meaningful legal framework for the activity of collaborative economy platforms in the Internal Market? The ambition of the submitted contribution would be to respond to this question based on the analysis of the adopted provisions of the DSA and DMA. For this purpose, the systemic review of the existing literature on the regulating of collaborative economy platforms will be conducted. The analysis will also refer to the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice on the scope of application of the Services Directive and E-Commerce Directive in the context of the activity of Uber and Airbnb. Thirdly, the author will also assess the approach of the EU institutions to the collaborative economy platforms (exemplified by the above-mentioned rulings and legislation, as well as the European Commission’s policy documents) in the context of regulating the activity of transnational entities. The main argument of the paper will be based on the assumption that the lack of a meaningful legal framework for the economic activity of the collaborative economy platforms might lead to the deterioration of the protection of the economic interests of the users of these platforms. The second argument of the paper, building on the main one, suggests that such an outcome would be evidence of a non-interventionist policy of the EU and a lenient approach of the EU towards collaborative economy platforms. These arguments will be critically assessed and verified with the results of the analysis of the potential of the DSA and DMA to regulate their activities in line with the other types of digital platforms and ‘gatekeepers’.

The contribution was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland under the project with registry No. 2017/27/B/HS5/02073.

Member States Sovereign Green Bond Issuance and the Development of Local Green Bond Markets in the EU

Współautorstwo: Smoleńska, Agnieszka

Greening the Bond Market : A European Perspective / edited by David Ramos Muñoz, Agnieszka Smoleńska. Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, s. 51-77.

In 2016 Poland was the first EU country to issue a Green Bond Principles-aligned bond to finance environmental projects. Since then, sovereign issuance in the EU grew enormously. In just over five years the market grew to over 290 bn euro outstanding sovereign ESG bonds in the EU in 2022. 16 Member States have chosen to issue green and social bonds in that time. In this chapter, we analyse the features of these bond issuances and in particular, their conditions, objectives and governance structures. Member States choose to issue green bonds in order to finance specific sustainability transition projects, facilitate the development of local sustainable finance markets and diversify their investor base. While ICMA Green Bond standards are followed by all EU sovereign issuers, we observe significant heterogeneity in terms of the implemented governance mechanisms as well as early uptake of new EU rules (EU Green Bond Regulation, Green Taxonomy). In this context, we specifically discuss the conditions under which sustainable sovereign issuance contributes to the development of local green bond markets, focusing in particular on less developed capital markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

Constitutional dimension of the competition law of the EU in sports

EU Antitrust : Hot Topics & Next Steps : Proceedings of the International Conference Held in Prague on January 24-25, 2022 / Václav Šmejkal (ed.) – Praha: Charles University, 2022, s. 581-593.

The debate on the potential of the competition law of the EU to pursue noneconomic objectives is currently vividly discussed in the doctrine. Most frequently it is conducted on the example of the digital gatekeepers, environmental protection, or public health objectives. However, one of the fields, in which the social impact of the antitrust law is the most visible is quite surprisingly sports. The most recent examples of the application of the provisions of the competition law of the EU to sports show that it has great potential in strengthening the level of protection for the rights of individuals, hence it gains constitutional dimension. Its objective in application to sports is more socio-oriented than economically – it can become a useful legal tool for increasing the level of protection of fundamental rights to the fair trial of the athletes, maintain openness, accessibility, and significance of sports in the society and help implement accountability and proportionality in the governance of sport disciplines across the EU.