Towards a New EU Regulatory Approach of the Digital Society

In recent times, the European Union has proactively multiplied the regulatory texts relating to various aspects of the digitalization of society. These texts take into account both the deep modifications of the digital market (merging of the telecommunications, audiovisual and information society services), the ubiquitous presence of certain actors and the increasing impact of our digital society not only on our way of doing business or conducting public affairs but also on our life and liberties. Through these texts, the Union’s desire to chart a “Third Way” forward in terms of the development of our digital society, human centred, distinct from that of the United States and China and based in particular on respect for human rights . Beyond the multiplication of these texts, it is interesting to highlight a certain number of the characteristics of this EU regulatory approach: how the EU authorities have imposed a coregulatory model instead of self-regulation and how they are achieving a full consistent EU market. Furthermore, EU recent regulations adopt an asymmetrical approach in order to regulate especially the major actors and in order to ensure the proportionality of their intervention and the effectiveness of their regulations, the EU authorities promote a risk-based approach and of preventive measures, including the creation of internal compliance bodies, in addition to or instead of the traditional a posteriori legal control.