Designing EU Digital Laws

This is an analysis of the changes to the methods of EU digital regulation since 2015. The article argues that fundamentally new regulatory choices have been made in the EU post-2015. In an attempt to solve the problems of illegal and harmful content on platforms insulated from liability, data-driven algorithmically based economy and cybersecurity attacks, the EU gradually abandoned the laissez-faire approach and introduced mechanisms for making platforms more ‘responsible’. The new regulatory choices include the use of ex ante method, risk-based compliance, increased use of sector-specific regulation and more aggressive enforcement. The article outlines both the policy changes and the implementation of new method in the passed (DSA, DMA) or proposed (AI) acts.