The Digital Services Act (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.

The DSA Observatory provides independent scientific input during the DSA debate and to engage different stakeholders on the DSA proposals, in particular on the challenge of confronting platform power from a fundamental rights and democratic values perspective. To achieve these goals, the Observatory will bring together a broad network of platform regulation experts in academia and other relevant stakeholders, including civil society organisations, policymakers and regulators.

The DSA Observatory will closely follow the DSA process and generate regular outputs on relevant developments, including through dissemination activities, workshops and expert meetings.

NEWS

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ANALYSIS

State of Play of DSA Dispute Settlement: Meaningful Redress, Uneven Results

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After almost two years of certified out-of-court dispute settlement (ODS) bodies operating under Article 21 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the first transparency reports provide early evidence of how this new due process layer operates in practice. Drawing on 2025 data from multiple ODS bodies, this article assesses what value the system is already delivering, and where current constraints, including platform participation and information-sharing, limit its effectiveness. We discuss possible ways forward, including stronger incentives, technical infrastructure and feedback loops.

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Digital Fairness Act: Why we need an ambitious DFA to protect digital consumers from manipulative and addictive design practices

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By 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”.

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What makes a risk “systemic”? The CJEU’s first interpretation of systemic risks under the Digital Services Act

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This 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.

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If at first you don’t succeed: Reflections on a rejected Art. 40 DSA data access request

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By 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. 

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EVENTS

The Digital Services Act Observatory at the Amsterdam Law School will be hosting events on a variety of topics which are relevant to the DSA discussion and process. Information on these events will be posted here.

Please get in touch if you would like to share your ideas for a DSA-related event or discuss your research at one of our events.

Learning Call (25 June): GenAI and the DSA’s Systemic Risk Framework

June 8, 2026/by admin

Learning Call: The DSA as a Tool for Tackling Gender-Based Violence

May 1, 2026/by admin

Call for Papers: The DSA and Platform Regulation Conference 2026

July 9, 2025/by admin

Summer course 2024 on “European Platform Regulation”

March 19, 2024/by admin
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ABOUT

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, Ilaria Buri, Paddy Leerssen, dr. Ronan Fahy, prof. Natali Helberger, prof. Martin Senftleben, dr. João Pedro Quintais and Doris Bujis.

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 was launched thanks to the funding of the Open Society Foundations.

CONTACT

The DSA Observatory team can be reached by email at:

j.v.j.vanhoboken@uva.nl or i.buri@uva.nl

2021-2026 © DSA Observatory