European Union: Adoption of DSM Copyright Directive introducing content moderation obligations for online platforms

On 17 April 2019, the Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market was adopted by the Council of the European Union. An “online content-sharing service provider” represents an entity storing and offering public access to copyright-protected works for profit-making purposes. Under the Directive, “online content-sharing service providers” will have to obtain authorization from right holders for content protected by copyright to avoid liability. Specifically, platforms will need to demonstrate that they made efforts to obtain an authorisation and remove unauthorised content after receiving a notification.