European UnionDigital Services Act (DSA), Articles 11 to 15 (Points of contact, legal representatives, terms and conditions and transparency reports of providers of intermediary services)
Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Arts. 11-15
In force since .
A transparency and process rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Disclosure, Reporting, Contract terms
As of .
What it requires
- Designate a single point of contact for Member States' authorities, the Commission and the Board, so that they can communicate with you directly and by electronic means, and make public the information needed to identify and reach it. Keep that information easily accessible and up to date, and state the official languages of the Member States that can be used to communicate with it, in addition to a language broadly understood by the largest possible number of Union citizens. They must include at least one official language of the Member State of your main establishment or of the place where your legal representative resides or is established.
- Designate a single point of contact for the recipients of your service that lets them communicate with you directly and rapidly, by electronic means and in a user-friendly manner. Let recipients choose the means of communication, which must not rely solely on automated tools, and make public the information they need to identify and reach it, easily accessible and kept up to date.
- If you have no establishment in the Union but offer services in the Union, designate in writing a legal or natural person as your legal representative in one of the Member States where you offer your services. Mandate the representative to be addressed, in addition to or instead of you, by the competent authorities, the Commission and the Board on all issues necessary for the receipt of, compliance with and enforcement of decisions under the Regulation, and give it the necessary powers and sufficient resources.
- If you have no establishment in the Union, notify the name, postal address, email address and telephone number of your legal representative to the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State where it resides or is established, and keep that information publicly available, easily accessible, accurate and up to date. Designating a legal representative does not make you established in the Union.
- Include in your terms and conditions information on any restrictions you impose on the use of your service in respect of information provided by recipients, including the policies, procedures, measures and tools you use for content moderation (algorithmic decision-making and human review) and the rules of procedure of your internal complaint handling system. Set it out in clear, plain, intelligible, user-friendly and unambiguous language, and make it publicly available in an easily accessible and machine-readable format.
- Inform recipients of the service of any significant change to your terms and conditions.
- If your service is primarily directed at minors or predominantly used by them, explain the conditions for, and any restrictions on, the use of the service in a way that minors can understand.
- Apply and enforce the restrictions in your terms and conditions in a diligent, objective and proportionate manner, 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 and the freedom and pluralism of the media.
- If you are a very large online platform or very large online search engine, give recipients a concise, easily accessible and machine-readable summary of your terms and conditions, including the available remedies and redress mechanisms, in clear and unambiguous language, and publish your terms and conditions in the official languages of all the Member States in which you offer your services.
- Publish, at least once a year, in a machine-readable format and in an easily accessible manner, clear and easily comprehensible reports on any content moderation you engaged in during the relevant period.
- Include in each report, as applicable: the orders received from Member States' authorities, including orders under Articles 9 and 10, by type of illegal content and issuing Member State, with the median time to inform the authority and give effect; if you provide hosting, the notices submitted under Article 16 by type of alleged illegal content, those from trusted flaggers, the action taken and whether it rested on the law or your terms and conditions, the notices processed by automated means and the median time to act; meaningful information on content moderation at your own initiative, including automated tools and the training and assistance given to moderators; the complaints received through your internal complaint-handling systems, the decisions taken, the median time to decide and the instances where decisions were reversed; and any use of automated means for content moderation, with its purposes, indicators of accuracy, possible rate of error and safeguards.
- You are not required to publish the reports in Article 15(1) if you qualify as a micro or small enterprise as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC and are not a very large online platform.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
Article 52(3) requires Member States to set the maximum fine for a failure to comply with an obligation in the Regulation at 6 % of the provider's annual worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, and the maximum fine for supplying incorrect, incomplete or misleading information, failing to reply or rectify, or failing to submit to an inspection at 1 % of annual income or worldwide turnover. Article 52(4) sets the maximum periodic penalty payment at 5 % of average daily worldwide turnover or income per day.
- Rule
- Turnover pct only
- As of
- Turnover percentage cap
- 6
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The authorities of the Member State in which the provider's main establishment is located (Article 56(1)) and, for providers of very large online platforms and of very large online search engines, the European Commission (Article 56(3)).
What this law does
Article 11 requires a provider of intermediary services to designate a single point of contact to communicate directly, by electronic means, with Member States' authorities, the Commission and the Board referred to in Article 61. The provider must make public the information needed to identify and communicate with that point of contact, keep it easily accessible and up to date, and specify the official languages that can be used to communicate with it.
Article 12 requires a provider of intermediary services to designate a single point of contact that lets recipients of the service communicate directly and rapidly with it, by electronic means and in a user-friendly manner, including by choosing the means of communication, which must not rely solely on automated tools. The provider must also make public the information recipients need to identify and communicate with that point of contact, kept easily accessible and up to date.
Article 13 requires a provider of intermediary services that has no establishment in the Union but offers services in the Union to designate, in writing, a legal or natural person to act as its legal representative in one of the Member States where it offers its services.
The provider must mandate the legal representative to be addressed, in addition to or instead of the provider, by Member States' competent authorities, the Commission and the Board on all issues necessary for the receipt of, compliance with and enforcement of decisions issued under the Regulation, and must give it the necessary powers and sufficient resources.
The designated legal representative can be held liable for non-compliance with the obligations under the Regulation, without prejudice to the liability and legal actions that could be initiated against the provider.
The provider must notify the name, postal address, email address and telephone number of its legal representative to the Digital Services Coordinator in the Member State where that representative resides or is established, and keep that information publicly available, easily accessible, accurate and up to date. The designation of a legal representative in the Union does not constitute an establishment in the Union.
Article 14 requires a provider of intermediary services to include in its terms and conditions information on any restrictions it imposes on the use of its service in respect of information provided by recipients, including the policies, procedures, measures and tools it uses for content moderation and the rules of procedure of its internal complaint handling system.
That information must be set out in clear, plain, intelligible, user-friendly and unambiguous language and be publicly available in an easily accessible and machine-readable format. The provider must inform recipients of any significant change to the terms and conditions. Where a service is primarily directed at minors or predominantly used by them, the provider must explain the conditions for, and any restrictions on, the use of the service in a way that minors can understand.
The provider must act in a diligent, objective and proportionate manner in applying and enforcing the restrictions in its terms and conditions, with due regard to the rights and legitimate interests of all parties involved, including the fundamental rights of the recipients of the service.
A provider of a very large online platform or very large online search engine must also give recipients a concise, easily accessible and machine-readable summary of its terms and conditions, including the available remedies and redress mechanisms. It must publish its terms and conditions in the official languages of all the Member States in which it offers its services.
Article 15 requires a provider of intermediary services to 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 it engaged in during the relevant period.
The reports must cover, as applicable, the orders received from Member States' authorities, the notices submitted under Article 16, content moderation at the provider's own initiative including automated tools, the complaints received through internal complaint-handling systems, and any use of automated means for content moderation.
Article 15(1) does not apply to providers of intermediary services that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC and are not very large online platforms within the meaning of Article 33. Article 3, point (j), defines an online search engine as an intermediary service, which is the category of provider that Articles 11 to 15 bind.
The Regulation applies to intermediary services offered to recipients of the service that have their place of establishment or are located in the Union, irrespective of where the providers have their place of establishment.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app reuses other publishers' content, operates a social platform or serves under-18s.