My favourites

Chapter III – Due diligence obligations for a transparent and safe online environment (Art. 11-48)

Art. 11 DSA - Points of contact for Member States’ authorities, the Commission and the Board arrow_right_alt

Art. 12 DSA - Points of contact for recipients of the service arrow_right_alt

Art. 13 DSA - Legal representatives arrow_right_alt

Art. 14 DSA - Terms and conditions arrow_right_alt

Art. 15 DSA - Transparency reporting obligations for providers of intermediary services arrow_right_alt

Art. 16 DSA - Notice and action mechanisms arrow_right_alt

Art. 17 DSA - Statement of reasons arrow_right_alt

  1. Providers of hosting services shall provide a clear and specific statement of reasons to any affected recipients of the service for any of the following restrictions imposed on the ground that the information provided by the recipient of the service is illegal content or incompatible with their terms and conditions:
    1. any restrictions of the visibility of specific items of information provided by the recipient of the service, including removal of content, disabling access to content, or demoting content;
    2. suspension, termination or other restriction of monetary payments;
    3. suspension or termination of the provision of the service in whole or in part;
    4. suspension or termination of the recipient of the service’s account.
  2. Paragraph 1 shall only apply where the relevant electronic contact details are known to the provider. It shall apply at the latest from the date that the restriction is imposed, regardless of why or how it was imposed.Paragraph 1 shall not apply where the information is deceptive high-volume commercial content.
  3. The statement of reasons referred to in paragraph 1 shall at least contain the following information:
    1. information on whether the decision entails either the removal of, the disabling of access to, the demotion of or the restriction of the visibility of the information, or the suspension or termination of monetary payments related to that information, or imposes other measures referred to in paragraph 1 with regard to the information, and, where relevant, the territorial scope of the decision and its duration;
    2. the facts and circumstances relied on in taking the decision, including, where relevant, information on whether the decision was taken pursuant to a notice submitted in accordance with Article 16 or based on voluntary own-initiative investigations and, where strictly necessary, the identity of the notifier;
    3. where applicable, information on the use made of automated means in taking the decision, including information on whether the decision was taken in respect of content detected or identified using automated means;
    4. where the decision concerns allegedly illegal content, a reference to the legal ground relied on and explanations as to why the information is considered to be illegal content on that ground;
    5. where the decision is based on the alleged incompatibility of the information with the terms and conditions of the provider of hosting services, a reference to the contractual ground relied on and explanations as to why the information is considered to be incompatible with that ground;
    6. clear and user-friendly information on the possibilities for redress available to the recipient of the service in respect of the decision, in particular, where applicable through internal complaint-handling mechanisms, out-of-court dispute settlement and judicial redress.
  4. The information provided by the providers of hosting services in accordance with this Article shall be clear and easily comprehensible and as precise and specific as reasonably possible under the given circumstances. The information shall, in particular, be such as to reasonably allow the recipient of the service concerned to effectively exercise the possibilities for redress referred to in of paragraph 3, point (f).
  5. This Article shall not apply to any orders referred to in Article 9.
Related
Close tabsclose
  • 54
  • 55

Recital 54

Where a provider of hosting services decides, on the ground that the information provided by the recipients is illegal content or is incompatible with its terms and conditions, to remove or disable access to information provided by a recipient of the service or to otherwise restrict its visibility or monetisation, for instance following receipt of a notice or acting on its own initiative, including exclusively by automated means, that provider should inform in a clear and easily comprehensible way the recipient of its decision, the reasons for its decision and the available possibilities for redress to contest the decision, in view of the negative consequences that such decisions may have for the recipient, including as regards the exercise of its fundamental right to freedom of expression. That obligation should apply irrespective of the reasons for the decision, in particular whether the action has been taken because the information notified is considered to be illegal content or incompatible with the applicable terms and conditions. Where the decision was taken following receipt of a notice, the provider of hosting services should only reveal the identity of the person or entity who submitted the notice to the recipient of the service where this information is necessary to identify the illegality of the content, such as in cases of infringements of intellectual property rights.

Recital 55

Restriction of visibility may consist in demotion in ranking or in recommender systems, as well as in limiting accessibility by one or more recipients of the service or blocking the user from an online community without the user being aware (‘shadow banning’). The monetisation via advertising revenue of information provided by the recipient of the service can be restricted by suspending or terminating the monetary payment or revenue associated to that information. The obligation to provide a statement of reasons should however not apply with respect to deceptive high-volume commercial content disseminated through intentional manipulation of the service, in particular inauthentic use of the service such as the use of bots or fake accounts or other deceptive uses of the service. Irrespective of other possibilities to challenge the decision of the provider of hosting services, the recipient of the service should always have a right to effective remedy before a court in accordance with the national law.

Art. 18 DSA - Notification of suspicions of criminal offences arrow_right_alt

Art. 19 DSA - Exclusion for micro and small enterprises arrow_right_alt

Art. 20 DSA - Internal complaint-handling system arrow_right_alt

Art. 21 DSA - Out-of-court dispute settlement arrow_right_alt

Art. 22 DSA - Trusted flaggers arrow_right_alt

Art. 23 DSA - Measures and protection against misuse arrow_right_alt

Art. 24 DSA - Transparency reporting obligations for providers of online platforms arrow_right_alt

Art. 25 DSA - Online interface design and organisation arrow_right_alt

Art. 26 DSA - Advertising on online platforms arrow_right_alt

Art. 27 DSA - Recommender system transparency arrow_right_alt

Art. 28 DSA - Online protection of minors arrow_right_alt

Art. 29 DSA - Exclusion for micro and small enterprises arrow_right_alt

Art. 30 DSA - Traceability of traders arrow_right_alt

Art. 31 DSA - Compliance by design arrow_right_alt

Art. 32 DSA - Right to information arrow_right_alt

Art. 33 DSA - Very large online platforms and very large online search engines arrow_right_alt

Art. 34 DSA - Risk assessment arrow_right_alt

Art. 35 DSA - Mitigation of risks arrow_right_alt

Art. 36 DSA - Crisis response mechanism arrow_right_alt

Art. 37 DSA - Independent audit arrow_right_alt

Art. 38 DSA - Recommender systems arrow_right_alt

Art. 39 DSA - Additional online advertising transparency arrow_right_alt

Art. 40 DSA - Data access and scrutiny arrow_right_alt

Art. 41 DSA - Compliance function arrow_right_alt

Art. 42 DSA - Transparency reporting obligations arrow_right_alt

Art. 43 DSA - Supervisory fee arrow_right_alt

Art. 44 DSA - Standards arrow_right_alt

Art. 45 DSA - Codes of conduct arrow_right_alt

Art. 46 DSA - Codes of conduct for online advertising arrow_right_alt

Art. 47 DSA - Codes of conduct for accessibility arrow_right_alt

Art. 48 DSA - Crisis protocols arrow_right_alt