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The Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory
The “Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory” is a project run by the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam, which acts as a hub of expertise on the new EU Digital Services Act Regulation.
The DSA Observatory provides independent scholarly input and facilitates discussions regarding this important legislation, its implementation and enforcement. In particular, the DSA Observatory focuses on fundamental rights and democratic values as a means to confront platform power.
Launched in January 2021, the Observatory has followed the DSA political process closely. It engages with different stakeholders and brings together a broad network of platform regulation experts from academia, civil society, and government.
The project generates regular analysis on the DSA and relevant developments, including blog posts, policy reports, academic articles, and events including expert workshops, panels and conferences.
About The Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory
The DSA Observatory
The Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory is a new project run by the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam, which kicked-off in January 2021. The DSA Observatory acts as a hub of expertise with respect to the “Digital Services Act” package presented by the European Commission in December 2020.
Project team
The core project team for the DSA Observatory is composed of prof. Joris van Hoboken, Paddy Leerssen, John Albert, Magdalena Jóźwiak, dr. Ronan Fahy, prof. Natali Helberger, and dr. João Pedro Quintais
Funding and collaboration with the Digital Legal Lab
The DSA Observatory is part of the “Digital Transformations of Decision-Making” research initiative of the Amsterdam Law School and contributes to the activities of the Digital Legal Lab, an interuniversity research centre on law and digital technologies run by a research network between four Dutch universities: Tilburg University, the University of Amsterdam, Radboud University Nijmegen and Maastricht University. This joint research initiative, the Digital Legal Studies Sector Plan for legal research is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The DSA Observatory has received funding from the Open Society Foundations and from the Civitates initiative (“Healthy Digital Public Sphere” programme) and the DSA Research Network (a collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and the Hans-Bredow-Institut), funded by Stiftung Mercator.
Where we focus on …
Europe / Brussels
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Justice
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Privacy
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Politics
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Research
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People
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Events
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admin2025-07-09 15:06:532026-01-18 20:58:27Call for Papers: The DSA and Platform Regulation Conference 2026
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admin2024-03-19 12:59:532024-03-19 12:59:53Summer course 2024 on “European Platform Regulation”Contact
The DSA Observatory team can be reached by email at:
dsaobservatory-ivir@uva.nl
Digital Fairness Act: Why we need an ambitious DFA to protect digital consumers from manipulative and addictive design practices
/in AnalysisBy John Albert, Marijn Sax, and Natali Helberger
In this policy brief, we advocate for an ambitious Digital Fairness Act that futureproofs EU consumer law and protects consumers from the full range of unfair digital commercial practices across digital services, including deceptive interfaces, manipulative design, and addictive features. This brief builds on proposals developed in the report “Towards Digital Fairness”.
What makes a risk “systemic”? The CJEU’s first interpretation of systemic risks under the Digital Services Act
/in AnalysisThis post analyses the first major CJEU interpretation of “systemic risks” under the Digital Services Act in Amazon v. European Commission (2025). It argues that the judgment clarifies systemic risks as large-scale societal risks, rejects analogies with financial systemic risk regulation, and provides some guidance on the scope of Article 34 DSA.
If at first you don’t succeed: Reflections on a rejected Art. 40 DSA data access request
/in AnalysisBy Catalina Goanta & Anda Iamnitchi
Article 40 of the Digital Services Act was hailed as a breakthrough for platform research. But what does the the procedure look like in practice? Drawing on their own rejected data access request, the authors reflect candidly on early lessons for the first wave of Article 40 applications, and what researchers should know before applying for access to platform data. Readers are also invited to contribute to an ongoing researcher survey. A webinar with the authors on 20 March (embedded below) unpacks more lessons learned about DSA data access.