Why it’s crucial for all Amsterdam-based startups to join this event on May 13

The Dutch startup ecosystem, especially the one in Amsterdam, is one of the largest contributors to the country’s economy. As per a Dealroom report, there are over 4,311 home-grown tech companies, which created more than 108,000 jobs in the Netherlands alone. With startup value creation of over €44 billion, it would be an understatement to say that startups are crucial for the economy. 

With startups’ contributions being notably paramount, it goes without saying that they need to be included in decisions impacting them. Keeping this in mind, Allied for Startups, together with StartupAmsterdam and other startup ecosystem partners,Techleap.nl, Dutch Startup Association and Considerati is holding a webinar to guide startups through the challenges of the new legislation and share concrete action items to engage with policymakers at a national & EU level. Basically it’s a step to make the upcoming Digital Services Act startup-friendly.

Here’s why it’s critical that startups based out of not only Amsterdam but The Netherlands and Europe, should attend the event.

How Digital Services Act impacts startups

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is important for startups to take note as it affects all platforms hosting user-generated content, which qualifies as hosting intermediary services. This means that from social media platforms to rating & review platforms, and from web hosting platforms to online media sharing platforms, every digital services company will be impacted. 

The DSA will also impact other facets of digital services startups. The webinar aims to generate awareness about the act and ensure that its goal is to make it easier for startup founders to establish a platform startup and scale it across the continent. The DSA needs to build on some key proposals put forth by Allied For Startups, which are:

• Provide a set of simple, harmonized rules for intermediary liability exemption. This will ensure that startup entrepreneurs have straightforward rules for platforms hosting third-party content in Europe. 
• Keeping a prohibition on general monitoring obligations so that startups are not forced to monitor all content users upload on their platform with costly and ineffective filtering technology.
• Preservation of country of origin to provide startup founders with the foundation to scale-up across Europe. 
• Making rules for ensuring that startups can work towards being compliant with them from day one. 
• Creating and implementing sandboxes and other tools for promoting entry of new services in the market. 

The goal of this event and the online roadshow would be to raise awareness about the new act. Needless to say, people participating in the campaign means a better opportunity for raising awareness.

Register for the event today!

The webinar and online roadshow will be hosted on May 13 at 11:30 AM CEST. Registration for the online event is free and one can head over here to participate. The event will feature prominent speakers such as:

• Constantine of Orange-Nassau (Techleap.nl),
• Prabhat Agarwal (European Commission),
• Kim van Sparrentak, (MEP GroenLinks)
• Jan Middendorp (MP, VVD)
• Judith Huisman, (founder MeetingSelect)
• Benedikt Blomeyer (Allied for Startups)

Check out the video over here –

Please reach [email protected] at Allied for Startups if you require any further support. More information can be found over here.

Image credits: Shutterstock

This article is produced in collaboration with  StartupAmsterdam. Read more about our partnering opportunities.