keyboard_tab Digital Service Act 2022/2065 EN
BG CS DA DE EL EN ES ET FI FR GA HR HU IT LV LT MT NL PL PT RO SK SL SV print pdf
- 1 Art. 1 Subject matter
- 1 Art. 6 Hosting
- 1 Art. 7 Voluntary own-initiative investigations and legal compliance
- 1 Art. 13 Legal representatives
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER II
liability OF PROVIDERS OF INTERMEDIARY SERVICES
CHAPTER III
DUE DILIGENCE OBLIGATIONS FOR A TRANSPARENT AND SAFE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
SECTION 1
Provisions applicable to all providers of intermediary services
SECTION 2
Additional provisions applicable to providers of hosting services, including online platforms
SECTION 3
Additional provisions applicable to providers of online platforms
SECTION 4
Additional provisions applicable to providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders
SECTION 5
Additional obligations for providers of very large online platforms and of very large online search engines to manage systemic risks
SECTION 6
Other provisions concerning due diligence obligations
CHAPTER IV
IMPLEMENTATION, COOPERATION, PENALTIES AND ENFORCEMENT
SECTION 1
Competent authorities and national Digital Services Coordinators
SECTION 2
Competences, coordinated investigation and consistency mechanisms
SECTION 3
European Board for Digital Services
SECTION 4
Supervision, investigation, enforcement and monitoring in respect of providers of very large online platforms and of very large online search engines
SECTION 5
Common provisions on enforcement
SECTION 6
Delegated and implementing acts
CHAPTER V
FINAL PROVISIONS
- information society service
- recipient of the service
- consumer
- to offer services in the Union
- substantial connection to the Union
- trader
- intermediary service
- mere conduit
- caching
- hosting
- illegal content
- online platform
- online search engine
- dissemination to the public
- distance contract
- online interface
- Digital Services Coordinator of establishment
- Digital Services Coordinator of destination
- active recipient of an online platform
- active recipient of an online search engine
- advertisement
- recommender system
- content moderation
- terms and conditions
- persons with disabilities
- commercial communication
- turnover
- Mere conduit
- Caching
- information 27
- means 25
- legal 17
- service 16
- intermediary_services 14
- shall 13
- recipient_of_the_service 12
- union 9
- provider 9
- provided 9
- including 9
- which 8
- services 8
- person 7
- online_platform 7
- representative 7
- such 7
- providers 7
- recipients 6
- specific 6
- request 6
- natural 6
- regulation 6
- illegal_content 6
- article 5
- liability 5
- compliance 5
- from 5
- acting 5
- irrespective 4
- in article 4
- under 4
- particular 4
- activity 4
- establishment 4
- rules 4
- intermediary_service 4
- member states 4
- more 4
- purposes 4
- member state 4
- access 4
- online_interface 4
- either 3
- making 3
- consisting 3
- number 3
- digital 3
- providers 3
- necessary 3
Article 1
Subject matter
1. The aim of this Regulation is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market for intermediary_services by setting out harmonised rules for a safe, predictable and trusted online environment that facilitates innovation and in which fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter, including the principle of consumer protection, are effectively protected.
2. This Regulation lays down harmonised rules on the provision of intermediary_services in the internal market. In particular, it establishes:
(a) | a framework for the conditional exemption from liability of providers of intermediary_services; |
(b) | rules on specific due diligence obligations tailored to certain specific categories of providers of intermediary_services; |
(c) | rules on the implementation and enforcement of this Regulation, including as regards the cooperation of and coordination between the competent authorities. |
Article 3
Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
(a) | ‘ information_society_service’ means a ‘service’ as defined in Article 1(1), point (b), of Directive (EU) 2015/1535; |
(b) | ‘ recipient_of_the_service’ means any natural or legal person who uses an intermediary_service, in particular for the purposes of seeking information or making it accessible; |
(c) | ‘ consumer’ means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his or her trade, business, craft, or profession; |
(d) | ‘ to_offer_services_in_the_Union’ means enabling natural or legal persons in one or more Member States to use the services of a provider of intermediary_services that has a substantial_connection_to_the_Union; |
(e) | ‘ substantial_connection_to_the_Union’ means a connection of a provider of intermediary_services with the Union resulting either from its establishment in the Union or from specific factual criteria, such as:
|
(f) | ‘ trader’ means any natural person, or any legal person irrespective of whether it is privately or publicly owned, who is acting, including through any person acting in his or her name or on his or her behalf, for purposes relating to his or her trade, business, craft or profession; |
(g) | ‘ intermediary_service’ means one of the following information_society_services:
|
(h) | ‘ illegal_content’ means any information that, in itself or in relation to an activity, including the sale of products or the provision of services, is not in compliance with Union law or the law of any Member State which is in compliance with Union law, irrespective of the precise subject matter or nature of that law; |
(i) | ‘ online_platform’ means a hosting service that, at the request of a recipient_of_the_service, stores and disseminates information to the public, unless that activity is a minor and purely ancillary feature of another service or a minor functionality of the principal service and, for objective and technical reasons, cannot be used without that other service, and the integration of the feature or functionality into the other service is not a means to circumvent the applicability of this Regulation; |
(j) | ‘ online_search_engine’ means an intermediary_service that allows users to input queries in order to perform searches of, in principle, all websites, or all websites in a particular language, on the basis of a query on any subject in the form of a keyword, voice request, phrase or other input, and returns results in any format in which information related to the requested content can be found; |
(k) | ‘ dissemination_to_the_public’ means making information available, at the request of the recipient_of_the_service who provided the information, to a potentially unlimited number of third parties; |
(l) | ‘ distance_contract’ means ‘ distance_contract’ as defined in Article 2, point (7), of Directive 2011/83/EU; |
(m) | ‘ online_interface’ means any software, including a website or a part thereof, and applications, including mobile applications; |
(n) | ‘ Digital_Services_Coordinator_of_establishment’ means the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State where the main establishment of a provider of an intermediary_service is located or its legal representative resides or is established; |
(o) | ‘ Digital_Services_Coordinator_of_destination’ means the Digital Services Coordinator of a Member State where the intermediary_service is provided; |
(p) | ‘active recipient of an online_platform’ means a recipient_of_the_service that has engaged with an online_platform by either requesting the online_platform to host information or being exposed to information hosted by the online_platform and disseminated through its online_interface; |
(q) | ‘active recipient of an online_search_engine’ means a recipient_of_the_service that has submitted a query to an online_search_engine and been exposed to information indexed and presented on its online_interface; |
(r) | ‘ advertisement’ means information designed to promote the message of a legal or natural person, irrespective of whether to achieve commercial or non-commercial purposes, and presented by an online_platform on its online_interface against remuneration specifically for promoting that information; |
(s) | ‘ recommender_system’ means a fully or partially automated system used by an online_platform to suggest in its online_interface specific information to recipients of the service or prioritise that information, including as a result of a search initiated by the recipient_of_the_service or otherwise determining the relative order or prominence of information displayed; |
(t) | ‘ content_moderation’ means the activities, whether automated or not, undertaken by providers of intermediary_services, that are aimed, in particular, at detecting, identifying and addressing illegal_content or information incompatible with their terms_and_conditions, provided by recipients of the service, including measures taken that affect the availability, visibility, and accessibility of that illegal_content or that information, such as demotion, demonetisation, disabling of access to, or removal thereof, or that affect the ability of the recipients of the service to provide that information, such as the termination or suspension of a recipient’s account; |
(u) | ‘ terms_and_conditions’ means all clauses, irrespective of their name or form, which govern the contractual relationship between the provider of intermediary_services and the recipients of the service; |
(v) | ‘ persons_with_disabilities’ means ‘ persons_with_disabilities’ as referred to in Article 3, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council (38); |
(w) | ‘ commercial_communication’ means ‘ commercial_communication’ as defined in Article 2, point (f), of Directive 2000/31/EC; |
(x) | ‘ turnover’ means the amount derived by an undertaking within the meaning of Article 5(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (39). |
CHAPTER II
liability OF PROVIDERS OF INTERMEDIARY SERVICES
Article 6
Hosting
1. Where an information_society_service is provided that consists of the storage of information provided by a recipient_of_the_service, the service provider shall not be liable for the information stored at the request of a recipient_of_the_service, on condition that the provider:
(a) | does not have actual knowledge of illegal activity or illegal_content and, as regards claims for damages, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which the illegal activity or illegal_content is apparent; or |
(b) | upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the illegal_content. |
2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply where the recipient_of_the_service is acting under the authority or the control of the provider.
3. Paragraph 1 shall not apply with respect to the liability under consumer protection law of online_platforms that allow consumers to conclude distance_contracts with traders, where such an online_platform presents the specific item of information or otherwise enables the specific transaction at issue in a way that would lead an average consumer to believe that the information, or the product or service that is the object of the transaction, is provided either by the online_platform itself or by a recipient_of_the_service who is acting under its authority or control.
4. This Article shall not affect the possibility for a judicial or administrative authority, in accordance with a Member State's legal system, to require the service provider to terminate or prevent an infringement.
Article 7
Voluntary own-initiative investigations and legal compliance
Providers of intermediary_services shall not be deemed ineligible for the exemptions from liability referred to in Articles 4, 5 and 6 solely because they, in good faith and in a diligent manner, carry out voluntary own-initiative investigations into, or take other measures aimed at detecting, identifying and removing, or disabling access to, illegal_content, or take the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of Union law and national law in compliance with Union law, including the requirements set out in this Regulation.
Article 13
Legal representatives
1. Providers of intermediary_services which do not have an establishment in the Union but which offer services in the Union shall designate, in writing, a legal or natural person to act as their legal representative in one of the Member States where the provider offers its services.
2. Providers of intermediary_services shall mandate their legal representatives for the purpose of being addressed in addition to or instead of such providers, by the Member States’ competent authorities, the Commission and the Board, on all issues necessary for the receipt of, compliance with and enforcement of decisions issued in relation to this Regulation. Providers of intermediary_services shall provide their legal representative with necessary powers and sufficient resources to guarantee their efficient and timely cooperation with the Member States’ competent authorities, the Commission and the Board, and to comply with such decisions.
3. It shall be possible for the designated legal representative to be held liable for non-compliance with obligations under this Regulation, without prejudice to the liability and legal actions that could be initiated against the provider of intermediary_services.
4. Providers of intermediary_services shall notify the name, postal address, email address and telephone number of their legal representative to the Digital Services Coordinator in the Member State where that legal representative resides or is established. They shall ensure that that information is publicly available, easily accessible, accurate and kept up to date.
5. The designation of a legal representative within the Union pursuant to paragraph 1 shall not constitute an establishment in the Union.
whereas