European UnionDigital Services Act (DSA), Articles 30 to 32 (Traceability of traders, compliance by design and right to information on online marketplaces)
Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Arts. 30-32
In force since .
A transparency and process rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Disclosure, Retention, Governance
As of .
What it requires
- If you provide an online platform allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders and qualify as a micro or small enterprise as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC, Section 4 of Chapter III (Articles 29 to 32) does not apply to you, and that exclusion continues for 12 months after you lose the status unless you are a very large online platform. If the Commission designates you a very large online platform, the Section applies to you whether or not you are a micro or small enterprise.
- Ensure that traders can only use your platform to promote messages on or to offer products or services to consumers located in the Union if, before they use your services for those purposes, you have obtained, where applicable to the trader: its name, address, telephone number and email address; a copy of its identification document or other electronic identification as defined by Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014; its payment account details; its trade register and registration number, where it is registered in a trade register or similar public register; and a self-certification committing to offer only products or services that comply with the applicable rules of Union law.
- Before allowing the trader to use your services, make best efforts to assess whether that information is reliable and complete, through any freely accessible official online database or online interface made available by a Member State or the Union, or through requests to the trader for supporting documents from reliable sources. For traders already using your services for those purposes on , make best efforts to obtain the information within 12 months and suspend your services to any trader that has not provided all of it by then, until it has.
- If you obtain sufficient indications or have reason to believe that any of that information is inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date, request that the trader remedy the situation without delay or within the period set by Union and national law, and if the trader fails to correct or complete it, swiftly suspend your service to that trader in relation to the offering of products or services to consumers located in the Union until the request has been fully complied with.
- Store the information obtained in a secure manner for six months after the end of the contractual relationship with the trader, then delete it. Disclose it to third parties only where required by the applicable law, including orders under Article 10 and orders issued by Member States' competent authorities or the Commission for the performance of their tasks under the Regulation.
- Make the trader's name, address, telephone number and email address, trade register details and self-certification available on your online platform to recipients of the service in a clear, easily accessible and comprehensible manner, at least on the online interface where the information on the product or service is presented.
- Design and organise your online interface so that traders can comply with their obligations on pre-contractual information, compliance and product safety information under Union law, including by providing the name, address, telephone number and email address of the economic operator, the information needed to identify the products or services promoted or offered to consumers in the Union, any sign identifying the trader such as a trademark, symbol or logo, and, where applicable, the labelling and marking information required by Union rules on product safety and product compliance.
- Make best efforts to assess whether traders have provided that information before allowing them to offer products or services on your platform. After allowing them, make reasonable efforts to check randomly, in any official, freely accessible and machine-readable online database or online interface, whether the products or services offered have been identified as illegal.
- If you become aware, irrespective of the means used, that a trader has offered an illegal product or service to consumers located in the Union through your services, inform, insofar as you have their contact details, the consumers who purchased it through your services of the fact that it is illegal, the identity of the trader and any relevant means of redress. Limit this to purchases made within the six months preceding the moment you became aware of the illegality.
- If you do not have the contact details of all the consumers concerned, make publicly available and easily accessible on your online interface the information concerning the illegal product or service, the identity of the trader and any relevant means of redress.
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 29(1) excludes providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC from Section 4 of Chapter III, and keeps the exclusion for 12 months after a provider loses that status, except for very large online platforms. Article 29(2) applies Section 4 to such a provider designated as a very large online platform, whether or not it qualifies as a micro or small enterprise.
Article 30(1) requires a provider of an online platform allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders to ensure that traders can only use the platform to promote messages on or to offer products or services to consumers located in the Union if, prior to that use, the provider has obtained the trader's name, address, telephone number and email address, identification document or electronic identification, payment account details, trade register details where applicable, and a self-certification that it will only offer products or services complying with the applicable rules of Union law.
Before allowing the trader to use its services, the provider must make best efforts to assess whether that information is reliable and complete, through any freely accessible official online database or interface made available by a Member State or the Union or through requests to the trader for supporting documents from reliable sources.
For traders already using the platform on the provider must make best efforts to obtain the information within 12 months and, where a trader fails to provide it in that period, must suspend the provision of its services to that trader until it has provided all the information.
Where the provider obtains sufficient indications or has reason to believe that any of that information is inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date, it must request that the trader remedy the situation without delay or within the period set by Union and national law, and where the trader fails to correct or complete it, must swiftly suspend the provision of its service to that trader in relation to the offering of products or services to consumers located in the Union until the request has been fully complied with.
A trader that is refused or suspended under Article 30 has the right to lodge a complaint as provided for in Articles 20 and 21. The provider must store the information obtained in a secure manner for six months after the end of the contractual relationship with the trader, and must then delete it.
It may disclose the information to third parties only where so required in accordance with the applicable law, including orders under Article 10 and orders issued by Member States' competent authorities or the Commission for the performance of their tasks under the Regulation.
It must make the information referred to in Article 30(1), points (a), (d) and (e), available on its online platform to recipients of the service in a clear, easily accessible and comprehensible manner, at least on the online interface where the information on the product or service is presented.
Article 31 requires such a provider to ensure that its online interface is designed and organised in a way that enables traders to comply with their obligations on pre-contractual information, compliance and product safety information under Union law, and that allows traders to provide the information identifying the products or services offered to consumers in the Union, any sign identifying the trader, and the applicable labelling and marking information.
The provider must make best efforts to assess whether traders have provided that information before allowing them to offer products or services on the platform, and after allowing them must make reasonable efforts to check randomly, in any official, freely accessible and machine-readable online database or interface, whether the products or services offered have been identified as illegal.
Article 32(1) requires a provider that becomes aware, irrespective of the means used, that a trader has offered an illegal product or service to consumers located in the Union through its services to inform, insofar as it has their contact details, the consumers who purchased it of the fact that it is illegal, the identity of the trader and any relevant means of redress, limited to purchases made within the six months preceding the moment the provider became aware.
Where the provider does not have the contact details of all consumers concerned, it must make publicly available and easily accessible on its online interface the information concerning the illegal product or service, the identity of the trader and any relevant means of redress.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates an app store or operates a social platform.