NME strongly welcomes the proposed Regulation which seeks to level the playing field for business users and corporate website users in relation to online platforms and is a crucial step in fostering a more open, fair, and inclusive Digital Single Market.

However, NME regrets that the main weakness of the proposal relates to transparency requirements on rankings, especially as regards online search engines, where more far-reaching transparency measures are warranted to safeguard freedom of expression in the online space and to ensure fairer conditions for news media companies to conduct business;

NME believes that other areas of the proposal where further reflection is warranted include terms and conditions, codes of conduct, and notably access to data, where strong concerns currently exist as regards potential abuses of dominance by certain online platforms within the framework of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, which are likely to exert a lasting and negative impact on the EU data economy.

Click here for NME’s full response to the European Commission’s Platforms to Business proposal.