Obligations for service providers

Basic obligations under the DSA common to all providers of intermediary services:

  • Publication of a contact point to be used by Member States´ authorities, the European Commission and European Board for Digital Services (Art. 11)
    • The contact shall be kept up to date, accessible by electronic means and shall include information about the official languages that can be used.
  • Publication of a contact point to be used by the recipients of services (Art. 12)
    • The contact shall be kept up to date, easily accessible by electronic means and user-friendly. Communication with a human must be enabled.
  • Designation of a legal representative, if the provider does not have an establishment in the Union but offers services in the Union (Art. 13)
  • Rules for contractual terms and conditions (Art. 14)
    • Terms and conditions shall be publicly available, plain, clear and intelligible.
    • They shall contain information on any restrictions imposed in relation to the use
    • of the service.
    • The recipient of the service shall be informed about any significant change to the terms and conditions.
    • The provider shall act in an objective, diligent and proportionate manner in applying the terms and conditions.
  • Reports on transparency (Art. 15)
    • Only those providers that are not a small or micro undertaking.
    • Obligation to publish, once a year, reports on any content moderation performed during the relevant period, including information about orders received from Member States’ authorities, content moderation at their own initiative, number of complaints, any use made of automated means for the purpose of content moderation and notices on illegal content.

I. Additional obligations for the providers of hosting

  • Mechanisms for notifying illegal content (Art. 16)
    • The provider must enable, by electronic means, the easy and user-friendly notification of illegal content within its service provided.
    • A confirmation of receipt of the notice must be sent to the notifier.
    • The provider shall inform the notifier about its decision and inform the notifier about the possibilities for redress.
  • Statement of reasons for the restrictions (Art. 17)
    • If a provider restricts the provision of services to a user because of illegal content or a breach of the contractual terms and conditions, it must provide the user with a clear and specific statement of reasons, including the possibilities for redress.
  • Notification of suspicions of criminal offences (Art. 18)
    • Obligation to notify suspected criminal offences involving a threat to the life or safety of persons to law enforcement authorities.

II. Additional obligations for the providers of online platforms (except for small and micro undertakings):

  • Internal complaint-handling system (Art. 20)
    • Obligation to provide access to an effective complaint-handling system against the decisions on illegal content and incompatibility with contractual terms and conditions for at least 6 months following the decision.
  • Obligation to cooperate with out-of-court dispute settlement bodies (Art. 21)
  • Obligation to cooperate with trusted flaggers (Art. 22)
    • Notices of illegal content submitted by trusted flaggers must be treated with priority.
  • Measures and protection against misuse (Art. 23)
    • Providers shall suspend, after having issued a prior warning, the provision of their services to recipients that frequently provide manifestly illegal content.
    • Providers shall also suspend, after having issued a prior warning, the processing of notices about illegal content submitted by persons who frequently submit notices or complaints that are manifestly unfounded.
  • Transparency obligations (Art. 24)
    • In addition to the information referred to in Article 15, providers of online platforms shall publish reports on disputes resolved by the out-of-court dispute settlement body and on the number of suspension of services imposed pursuant to Art. 23
    • In addition, they shall also publish information about the average monthly number of active users in the EU.
    • The decisions and the statements of reasons referred to in Art. 17(1) shall be submitted to the Transparency database managed by the European Commission.
  • Prohibition of so-called Dark patterns (Art. 25)
    • The online interface must not be designed in a way that misleads or manipulates users or interferes with their ability to make free and informed decisions.
  • Advertising on online platforms (Art. 26) – in competence of Personal Data Protection Office (ÚOOÚ)
    • The obligation to ensure that for each online advertisement presented, the user can unambiguously and in real time identify that it is an advertisement and who the advertiser is, including the main parameters used to determine the recipient of the advertisement.
    • The prohibition of profiling of advertising recipients on the basis of personal data such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, biometric data, sexual orientation or health status.
  • Recommender system transparency (Art. 27)
    • The obligation to set out in terms and conditions the main parameters used in their recommender systems, as well as any options for the recipients of the service to modify or influence those main parameters.
    • In case of multiple main parameters, the provider shall allow for easy reordering of the information presented.
  • Protection of minors (Art. 28)
    • The obligation to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors.
    • Prohibition of targeting online advertising to minors – in competence of Personal Data Protection Office ÚOOÚ

III. Additional obligations for providers of online marketplaces (except for small and micro undertakings)

  • Traceability of traders (Art. 30)
    • The provider must not allow goods and services to be offered to traders about whom it does not have sufficient information and must make every effort to verify the information.
    • Obligation to publish the name, postal address, telephone number, email address and other information about traders.
  • Ensuring compliance with regulations (Art. 31)
    • The online interface must allow traders to publish pre-contractual information on compliance with product safety regulations.
    • The provider must make reasonable efforts to use freely accessible databases to randomly check whether products or services offered have not been identified as illegal.
  • Information obligation (Art. 32)
    • The obligation to additionally inform the consumer about the purchase of an illegal product or service up to 6 months following the purchase.

IV. Additional obligations for very large online platforms and online search engine (European Commission´s remit)

  • Systemic risks assessment (Art. 34)
    • The obligation to regularly analyse and assess systemic risks associated with the operation of the service, such as the dissemination of illegal content, negative effects on fundamental rights, freedom of expression, consumer protection, civic discourse, electoral processes or public security.
  • Mitigation of systemic risks (Art. 35)
    • The obligation to put in place proportionate and effective measures to mitigate systemic risks arising from the use of the service.
  • Crisis response mechanism (Art. 36)
    • In extraordinary circumstances leading to a serious threat to public security or public health in the Union, the European Commission may order the provider to take measures to eliminate the threat.
  • Independent audit (Art. 37)
    • The obligation to undergo at least once a year an independent audit to assess compliance with obligations set out in the DSA.
  • Obligation to provide at least one option for each recommender system which is not based on profiling (Art. 38)
  • Obligation to make the online advertisement archive publicly available (Art. 39)
  • Data access (Art. 40)
    • The obligation to allow vetted researchers access to data.
    • The obligation to allow researchers access to publicly available data.
  • Obligation to establish an independent compliance function (Art. 41)
  • Transparency reporting obligations (Art. 42)
  • Obligation to pay supervisory fee to the European Commission (Art. 43)

 

  INTERMEDIARY SERVICES HOSTING SERVICES Online platformS VERY LARGE online platformS
Reporting transparency
Requirements for the provision of services with regard to fundamental rights
Cooperation with national authorities on the basis of orders
Contact points and, if necessary, legal counsel
„notice and action“ principle  and obligation to provide information to users  
Notifying offences  
Internal complaint-handling system and out-of-court dispute settlement    
Trusted flaggers    
Measures and protection against misuse    
Special obligations for marketplaces e.g. verification of the mandate of third party supplier, random inspections    
Protection of minors and prohibition of targeted advertising based on profiling of users according to a specific category of personal data    
Recommender system transparency    
Online advertising transparency    
Risk assessment, mitigation of risks and crisis response obligations      
External and independent audit      
The ability for the user to select content sorting systems other than profiling      
Sharing data with authorities and researchers      
Codes of conduct      
Cooperation in crisis management      
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