The power of rules in the age of digital transformations: Understanding EU rules on DSA and DMA

In recent years, the European Union has enacted a series of important rules on digital services, markets, data and AI. Understanding the texts, their origins, and impact can help understand the normative dynamics of digitalization and the interaction between rules and power and laws and technology in online spaces.

In this reading seminar, we will examine the Digital Services Act (DSA, 2022) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA, 2022) and look at specific examples including content moderation obligations, disclosure obligations, risk assessments and mitigation measures, and obligations that gatekeepers have. Reading key parts of the laws will allow us to understand the language of rules and the modes of regulation.

The reading seminar is aimed at researchers from all disciplines who do not have in-depth prior knowledge of the texts. Legal knowledge is not required. The seminar requires a willingness to read the texts (available online) and engage in a discussion on them.

• Date: Monday, 8 December 2025, 09:00 – 13:00
• Language: English
• Participation: The workshop is limited to 15 participants.
• This seminar conveys the following key learnings: a basic understanding of the content and scope of the legal texts covered, contextual knowledge about the origins and critical reception of the laws, the impact and limits of laws and time of digital transformation.
• Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard), teaches innovation law at the University of Innsbruck and leads research programs at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research (Hans-Bredow-Institut), Hamburg, and the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin. He is co-editor of a commentary on the DSA/DMA.