Poland risks legal action for failing to appoint digital regulator

Poland risks being referred to the EU courts as the only country that has not yet appointed a digital platform regulator, after the European Commission began an infringement procedure late last year.

The EU executive sent in December to both the Polish and Belgian governments formal requests to comply with EU law by empowering their national regulators under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s online platform rules.

Poland was also cautioned for failing to put in place rules on penalties. The two-month deadline to respond to the shortcomings raised by the Commission in its so-called reasoned opinion expired today.

A Commission official told Euronews that it is “currently examining the adopted laws and the replies from the member states [...] in order to consider the necessary next steps.” 

Belgium has since May last year named its telecom regulator BIPT, but the formal approval was pending as the country did not have a federal government in place at the time to rubber stamp the decision. 

The Commission said Belgium in the meantime “has designated and empowered” the DSA coordinator.

To date, Poland has still not appointed a regulator, according to the latest Commission data. The EU executive warned in December that it can refer countries to the Court of Justice of the EU in the “absence of a satisfactory response”.

Warsaw is ‘working on’ it

Poland’s Ministry for Digitalization told Euronews in a statement that it is “working on implementing the DSA regulation at the national level.”

“In the process of the implementation we are focusing on quality, rather than speed, to make sure that the legislation is sound and effective. This is why we have conducted two rounds of full-scale consultations and have taken into account the positions we received,” the statement ran.

“The legislation is currently under consideration by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers representing the government stage of the process,” it added – with no indication of when this process would be finalized. 

The tasks will be split between the country’s Office of Electronic Communications and the national telecoms regulator, with the support of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. 

Spain and the Netherlands also received a letter of formal notice, due to the lack of empowerment of the DSCs and for not laying down the rules on penalties.

Under the DSA, designed to combat illegal content online, EU member states were required to appoint by 17 February last year a national regulator in charge of overseeing the new regulations.

These Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) are intended to be the main point of contact for operators of online platforms, helping the EU executive to monitor compliance with the rules.