The three EU directives that will shape the audiovisual media, digital and electronic communications (telecommunications) market in the EU Member States for years to come are:

• Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 amending Directive 2010/13/EU on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) in view of changing market realities (“AVMS Directive”);
• Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (“EECC”);
• Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (“DSM Directive”).

The amended AVMS Directive brings important changes to the audiovisual media market. These include, among others, the extension of the scope of regulation to video-sharing platforms, simplification of the country-of-origin principle, increased obligations to promote European works and more flexible rules concerning TV advertising.

The EECC updates the regulatory landscape for electronic communications services. It replaces four main EU directives that made up the previous legal framework for telecoms with a single, consolidated text. One of the key changes brought by the EECC is the inclusion of the number-independent interpersonal communications services into the category of “electronic communications services”, which brings many OTT services within the ambit of the EU regulatory regime.

The DSM Directive adapts the copyright system to the evolving digital environment. The most important (and the most controversial) changes include a new press publishers’ right (Article 15) and new rules governing the liability of online content-sharing platforms for copyright infringing content uploaded by their users (Article 17).

Although deadlines for the implementation of all three directives have already passed (AVMS Directive – 19 September 2020; EECC – 21 December 2020; DSM Directive – 7 June 2021), many countries are still in the process of transposing them into national legal systems.

Since monitoring of legal developments across all 27 EU Member States may be a challenging and time-consuming task, we have prepared the tracker, where you can find up-to-date information about the status of implementation of the above directives in respective countries.

To obtain the tracker please email us: karol.laskowski@dentons.com