ABSTRACT – The present contribution aims at analysing the textual proposals of the digital trade agreements (DTAs) recently put forward by the European Commission, in order to assess their scope of application ratione materiae. The objective of the study is twofold. In primis, the innovative aspects brought about by the DTAs on the e-commerce chapters proper of the EU’s new generation free trade agreements concluded with third Countries are to be determined. As it will be demonstrated, digital trade agreements significantly broaden the material scope of application of these latter ones, in particular with regard to data regulation. From this perspective and secondly, the analysis focuses on the choice of the legal basis of the DTAs, by assessing whether the recourse to Art. 207 TFEU alone can legitimize the Union to regulate, within the aforesaid agreements, not purely commercial objectives, notably the protection of personal data and privacy.
