Editorial European fundamental rights and digitalization Maja Brkan* , Monica Claes* and Clara Rauchegger** Keywords Digitalization, digital platforms, artificial intelligence, Charter of Fundamental Rights, European Convention on Human Rights Introduction Digital technologies have had a profound impact on our economy and society. One of their main effects is that a platform economy and indeed a platform society have emerged. 1 Digital platforms – from eBay to AirBnB – use the internet to facilitate communication between users. 2 They enable a range of activities, including public activities such as journalism, civic engagement, education or transport. 3 Some of these platforms have even acquired a status of a dominant player on the market. 4 In 2020, the ‘Big Five’– Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and Facebook – are largely dominating the digital landscape. In parallel to the rise of the platform economy, we witness an increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), that is of software that is able to take appropriate actions to achieve a complex * Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands ** Faculty of Law and Digital Science Centre, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Corresponding author: Clara Rauchegger, Faculty of Law and Digital Science Centre, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. E-mail: clara.rauchegger@uibk.ac.at 1. M. Kenney and J. Zysman, ‘The rise of the platform economy’, 32 Issues in Science and Technology (2016), p. 61–69; N. Nash et al., ‘Public policy in the platform society’ 9 Policy & Internet (2017), p. 368–367. 2. P. Nooren et al., ‘Should we regulate digital platforms? A new framework for evaluating policy options’, 10 Policy & Internet (2018), p. 267. 3. N. Helberger et al., ‘Governing online platforms: From contested to cooperative responsibility’ 34 The Information Society (2018), p. 1. 4. M. Szpunar, ‘Reconciling new technologies with existing EU law – Online platforms as information society service providers’ 27 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law (2020), p. 400. Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 2020, Vol. 27(6) 697–704 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1023263X20983778 maastrichtjournal.sagepub.com MJ MJ