Commission to inaugurate the Observatory on the Online Platform Economy

Today, Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, responsible for the Digital Economy and Society, will launch the new Observatory on the Online Platform Economy at its first official meeting in Brussels.

The decision to set up the Observatory was first announced on 26 April 2018 along with the Commission’s new rules on the transparency and fairness in platforms-to-business relationships.The Observatory, which is composed of 15 independent experts, will monitor the evolution of the online platform economy to support the Commission’s own policies on online platforms. Their work will address such issues as rankings of search engine results by algorithms, access to and use of personal data by platforms, favourable treatment of own goods and services by online intermediaries and transparency in online advertising. The Observatory will also welcome contributions from other stakeholders and EU or national bodies and plans to hold dedicated events to discuss developments in the online platform economy.