Algorithms and Transparency: the Legal Regulation of Recommender Systems on Online Platforms in the European Union
Abstract
The increasing dominance of digital services has significantly reshaped online information flows, content consumption habits, and platform operations. The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to regulate the legal environment of online services, ensuring user rights, transparency, and a balanced digital market. Recommendation systems, which influence content accessibility and visibility, play a crucial role in this regulatory framework. Their algorithmic decision-making processes impact public opinion, market competition, and fundamental rights, prompting the EU to enforce transparency and accountability in ranking mechanisms, targeted recommendations, and automated decision-making. This study explores the DSA’s provisions on recommendation systems, analyzing their practical implications and assessing their legal and ethical impact. It examines platform obligations, transparency requirements, and redress mechanisms that protect user rights. Ethical concerns, such as algorithmic bias, filter bubbles, and manipulation risks, are discussed, along with the tension between transparency and excessive information overload. By critically evaluating the DSA’s approach, the study highlights key challenges in implementation and enforcement. It argues that while transparency mandates are a step forward, real user control remains limited. Without clear regulatory guidelines and oversight, platform compliance may lead to mere "transparency washing" rather than substantive change.
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