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
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
- shall 48
- information 46
- means 30
- service 24
- providers 18
- services 17
- intermediary_services 16
- including 16
- commission 16
- online_platforms 14
- large 13
- very 12
- referred 12
- they 12
- board 11
- recipients 11
- provider 10
- report 10
- number 9
- paragraph 9
- hosting 9
- regulation 9
- illegal_content 9
- particular 9
- provided 9
- specific 9
- notices 9
- of article 9
- recipient_of_the_service 8
- conduct 8
- codes 8
- individual 8
- entity 8
- which 8
- small 8
- accordance 8
- terms_and_conditions 8
- measures 8
- taken 8
- take 7
- enterprises 7
- type 7
- mechanisms 7
- automated 7
- respect 7
- providers 7
- account 7
- such 7
- article 7
- purposes 7
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 14
Terms and conditions
1. Providers of intermediary_services shall include information on any restrictions that they impose in relation to the use of their service in respect of information provided by the recipients of the service, in their terms_and_conditions. That information shall include information on any policies, procedures, measures and tools used for the purpose of content_moderation, including algorithmic decision-making and human review, as well as the rules of procedure of their internal complaint handling system. It shall be set out in clear, plain, intelligible, user-friendly and unambiguous language, and shall be publicly available in an easily accessible and machine-readable format.
2. Providers of intermediary_services shall inform the recipients of the service of any significant change to the terms_and_conditions.
3. Where an intermediary_service is primarily directed at minors or is predominantly used by them, the provider of that intermediary_service shall explain the conditions for, and any restrictions on, the use of the service in a way that minors can understand.
4. Providers of intermediary_services shall act in a diligent, objective and proportionate manner in applying and enforcing the restrictions referred to in paragraph 1, with due regard to the rights and legitimate interests of all parties involved, including the fundamental rights of the recipients of the service, such as the freedom of expression, freedom and pluralism of the media, and other fundamental rights and freedoms as enshrined in the Charter.
5. Providers of very large online_platforms and of very large online_search_engines shall provide recipients of services with a concise, easily-accessible and machine-readable summary of the terms_and_conditions, including the available remedies and redress mechanisms, in clear and unambiguous language.
6. Very large online_platforms and very large online_search_engines within the meaning of article 33 shall publish their terms_and_conditions in the official languages of all the Member States in which they offer their services.
Article 15
Transparency reporting obligations for providers of intermediary_services
1. Providers of intermediary_services shall make publicly available, in a machine-readable format and in an easily accessible manner, at least once a year, clear, easily comprehensible reports on any content_moderation that they engaged in during the relevant period. Those reports shall include, in particular, information on the following, as applicable:
| (a) | for providers of intermediary_services, the number of orders received from Member States’ authorities including orders issued in accordance with Articles 9 and 10, categorised by the type of illegal_content concerned, the Member State issuing the order, and the median time needed to inform the authority issuing the order, or any other authority specified in the order, of its receipt, and to give effect to the order; |
| (b) | for providers of hosting services, the number of notices submitted in accordance with Article 16, categorised by the type of alleged illegal_content concerned, the number of notices submitted by trusted flaggers, any action taken pursuant to the notices by differentiating whether the action was taken on the basis of the law or the terms_and_conditions of the provider, the number of notices processed by using automated means and the median time needed for taking the action; |
| (c) | for providers of intermediary_services, meaningful and comprehensible information about the content_moderation engaged in at the providers’ own initiative, including the use of automated tools, the measures taken to provide training and assistance to persons in charge of content_moderation, the number and type of measures taken that affect the availability, visibility and accessibility of information provided by the recipients of the service and the recipients’ ability to provide information through the service, and other related restrictions of the service; the information reported shall be categorised by the type of illegal_content or violation of the terms_and_conditions of the service provider, by the detection method and by the type of restriction applied; |
| (d) | for providers of intermediary_services, the number of complaints received through the internal complaint-handling systems in accordance with the provider’s terms_and_conditions and additionally, for providers of online_platforms, in accordance with Article 20, the basis for those complaints, decisions taken in respect of those complaints, the median time needed for taking those decisions and the number of instances where those decisions were reversed; |
| (e) | any use made of automated means for the purpose of content_moderation, including a qualitative description, a specification of the precise purposes, indicators of the accuracy and the possible rate of error of the automated means used in fulfilling those purposes, and any safeguards applied. |
2. Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to providers of intermediary_services that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC and which are not very large online_platforms within the meaning of article 33 of this Regulation.
3. The Commission may adopt implementing acts to lay down templates concerning the form, content and other details of reports pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article, including harmonised reporting periods. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 88.
SECTION 2
Additional provisions applicable to providers of hosting services, including online_platforms
Article 16
Notice and action mechanisms
1. Providers of hosting services shall put mechanisms in place to allow any individual or entity to notify them of the presence on their service of specific items of information that the individual or entity considers to be illegal_content. Those mechanisms shall be easy to access and user-friendly, and shall allow for the submission of notices exclusively by electronic means.
2. The mechanisms referred to in paragraph 1 shall be such as to facilitate the submission of sufficiently precise and adequately substantiated notices. To that end, the providers of hosting services shall take the necessary measures to enable and to facilitate the submission of notices containing all of the following elements:
| (a) | a sufficiently substantiated explanation of the reasons why the individual or entity alleges the information in question to be illegal_content; |
| (b) | a clear indication of the exact electronic location of that information, such as the exact URL or URLs, and, where necessary, additional information enabling the identification of the illegal_content adapted to the type of content and to the specific type of hosting service; |
| (c) | the name and email address of the individual or entity submitting the notice, except in the case of information considered to involve one of the offences referred to in Articles 3 to 7 of Directive 2011/93/EU; |
| (d) | a statement confirming the bona fide belief of the individual or entity submitting the notice that the information and allegations contained therein are accurate and complete. |
3. Notices referred to in this Article shall be considered to give rise to actual knowledge or awareness for the purposes of article 6 in respect of the specific item of information concerned where they allow a diligent provider of hosting services to identify the illegality of the relevant activity or information without a detailed legal examination.
4. Where the notice contains the electronic contact information of the individual or entity that submitted it, the provider of hosting services shall, without undue delay, send a confirmation of receipt of the notice to that individual or entity.
5. The provider shall also, without undue delay, notify that individual or entity of its decision in respect of the information to which the notice relates, providing information on the possibilities for redress in respect of that decision.
6. Providers of hosting services shall process any notices that they receive under the mechanisms referred to in paragraph 1 and take their decisions in respect of the information to which the notices relate, in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner. Where they use automated means for that processing or decision-making, they shall include information on such use in the notification referred to in paragraph 5.
Article 19
Exclusion for micro and small enterprises
1. This Section, with the exception of article 24(3) thereof, shall not apply to providers of online_platforms that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC.
This Section, with the exception of article 24(3) thereof, shall not apply to providers of online_platforms that previously qualified for the status of a micro or small enterprise as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC during the 12 months following their loss of that status pursuant to Article 4(2) thereof, except when they are very large online_platforms in accordance with Article 33.
2. By derogation from paragraph 1 of this Article, this Section shall apply to providers of online_platforms that have been designated as very large online_platforms in accordance with Article 33, irrespective of whether they qualify as micro or small enterprises.
Article 45
Codes of conduct
1. The Commission and the Board shall encourage and facilitate the drawing up of voluntary codes of conduct at Union level to contribute to the proper application of this Regulation, taking into account in particular the specific challenges of tackling different types of illegal_content and systemic risks, in accordance with Union law in particular on competition and the protection of personal data.
2. Where significant systemic risk within the meaning of article 34(1) emerge and concern several very large online_platforms or very large online_search_engines, the Commission may invite the providers of very large online_platforms concerned or the providers of very large online_search_engines concerned, and other providers of very large online_platforms, of very large online_search_engines, of online_platforms and of other intermediary_services, as appropriate, as well as relevant competent authorities, civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders, to participate in the drawing up of codes of conduct, including by setting out commitments to take specific risk mitigation measures, as well as a regular reporting framework on any measures taken and their outcomes.
3. When giving effect to paragraphs 1 and 2, the Commission and the Board, and where relevant other bodies, shall aim to ensure that the codes of conduct clearly set out their specific objectives, contain key performance indicators to measure the achievement of those objectives and take due account of the needs and interests of all interested parties, and in particular citizens, at Union level. The Commission and the Board shall also aim to ensure that participants report regularly to the Commission and their respective Digital Services Coordinators of establishment on any measures taken and their outcomes, as measured against the key performance indicators that they contain. Key performance indicators and reporting commitments shall take into account differences in size and capacity between different participants.
4. The Commission and the Board shall assess whether the codes of conduct meet the aims specified in paragraphs 1 and 3, and shall regularly monitor and evaluate the achievement of their objectives, having regard to the key performance indicators that they might contain. They shall publish their conclusions.
The Commission and the Board shall also encourage and facilitate regular review and adaptation of the codes of conduct.
In the case of systematic failure to comply with the codes of conduct, the Commission and the Board may invite the signatories to the codes of conduct to take the necessary action.
Article 91
Review
1. By 18 February 2027, the Commission shall evaluate and report to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on the potential effect of this Regulation on the development and economic growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.
By 17 November 2025, the Commission shall evaluate and report to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on:
| (a) | the application of article 33, including the scope of providers of intermediary_services covered by the obligations set out in Section 5 of Chapter III of this Regulation; |
| (b) | the way that this Regulation interacts with other legal acts, in particular the acts referred to in Article 2(3) and (4). |
2. By 17 November 2027, and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall evaluate this Regulation, and report to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee.
This report shall address in particular:
| (a) | the application of paragraph 1, second subparagraph, points (a) and (b); |
| (b) | the contribution of this Regulation to the deepening and efficient functioning of the internal market for intermediary_services, in particular as regards the cross-border provision of digital services; |
| (c) | the application of Articles 13, 16, 20, 21, 45 and 46; |
| (d) | the scope of the obligations on small and micro enterprises; |
| (e) | the effectiveness of the supervision and enforcement mechanisms; |
| (f) | the impact on the respect for the right to freedom of expression and information. |
3. Where appropriate, the report referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be accompanied by a proposal for amendment of this Regulation.
4. The Commission shall, in the report referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, also evaluate and report on the annual reports on their activities by the Digital Services Coordinators provided to the Commission and the Board pursuant to Article 55(1).
5. For the purpose of paragraph 2, Member States and the Board shall send information on the request of the Commission.
6. In carrying out the evaluations referred to in paragraph 2, the Commission shall take into account the positions and findings of the European Parliament, the Council, and other relevant bodies or sources, and shall pay specific attention to small and medium-sized enterprises and the position of new competitors.
7. By 18 February 2027, the Commission, after consulting the Board, shall carry out an assessment of the functioning of the Board and of the application of article 43, and shall report it to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee, taking into account the first years of application of the Regulation. On the basis of the findings and taking utmost account of the opinion of the Board, that report shall, where appropriate, be accompanied by a proposal for amendment of this Regulation with regard to the structure of the Board.
whereas