Harmonization Challenges in EU Digital Services Regulation Across Member States

Abstrakt

The Digital Services Act establishes a harmonized regulatory framework for online platforms across the European Union, yet enforcement responsibility remains distributed across national Digital Services Coordinators whose institutional capacity and interpretive practices vary considerably between member states. This study examines early implementation patterns across several member states, analyzing how differences in coordinator institutional design and resourcing have produced divergent enforcement approaches despite a shared underlying legal text. Drawing on comparative analysis of national implementing measures alongside interviews with coordinator officials, we identify specific provisions, particularly those governing content moderation transparency obligations, where interpretive divergence has already emerged despite the regulation's harmonization objective. Findings indicate that member states with pre-existing digital regulatory bodies achieved more consistent early enforcement compared to states establishing coordinator functions from institutional scratch, suggesting that institutional continuity matters as much as legal text uniformity for achieving harmonized outcomes. We discuss the role of the European Board for Digital Services in mediating these divergences and assess whether current coordination mechanisms are adequate to prevent fragmentation as enforcement matures. These findings contribute to ongoing debate about balancing member state enforcement autonomy against genuine regulatory harmonization within EU digital governance.