At this event, we will present a new CEPS expert report ‘Benefits and costs of website-blocking legislation: an economic, legal and policy assessment’. The study examines the growing wave of website-blocking measures across the EU-27, originally intended to curb online piracy and harmful content. The authors further assess whether these measures are effective, proportionate and compatible with EU law and broader competitiveness objectives. They evaluate both the potential benefits, such as tackling copyright infringement, illegal content and hybrid threats, and the economic, legal and societal costs, including over-blocking, burdens on service providers, fragmentation of the Single Market and risks to freedom of expression. The report also considers the technological limits of blocking, the ease of circumvention and the broader political economy of copyright enforcement in light of online piracy trends, drawing on evidence at EU level and from a number of Member States.
A presentation of the key findings will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A exploring how the EU can strike a better balance between protecting rights, safeguarding security and preserving innovation and openness in the Digital Single Market.
This event will bring together policymakers, academics and relevant stakeholders from across Europe to discuss the policy implications of the findings and the next steps in shaping a coherent and proportionate approach to website-blocking measures in the EU.
This launch event will take place in a hybrid format. Your presence in person would be greatly appreciated.
The study was supported by Nord Security. As with all CEPS research, the analysis and conclusions are entirely independent and reflect the views of the authors alone.
