DSA enforcement decision against X and TikTok commitments good news for consumers

The European Commission’s first non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA) is good news, as it found that X has breached key transparency obligations. Deceptive design, opaque advertising practices and barriers to researcher access are serious risks for consumers and undermine trust in the online environment.

The Commission also accepted TikTok’s binding commitments to significantly improve advertising transparency. This is also good news as these improvements are urgently needed. They echo BEUC’s long-standing concerns about TikTok’s marketing and commercial practices, already raised under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive before the DSA entered into force. Ensuring that ad repositories are complete, accessible and up to date is crucial to help regulators, researchers and civil society detect scams, harmful content and age-inappropriate marketing, especially to children and teenagers.

Agustín Reyna, Director-General of The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), said:
“Only through deterrent enforcement actions can the Commission ensure that platforms truly protect consumers. Today’s decision is a good sign that the EU is ready to act when platforms mislead consumers or fail to provide basic transparency. Only with strong, decisive enforcement consumers will be protected from scams, impersonation and other harmful practices online.

Reyna added: “TikTok’s commitments are an important step. Swift and full implementation is now needed. The Commission must keep a close eye on TikTok to ensure they are transparent towards consumers. Platforms must not only promise to respect the DSA - they must demonstrate it in practice.”