PRESS RELEASE: First year of the DSA Regulation: summary in numbers

Prague, 17 February 2025 – Today, it has been one year since the Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act), so called DSA, entered into full effect. This regulation significalntly changed rules for the functioning of online intermediary services (provision of access to a communication network, online marketplaces, social networks, cloud services, online platforms, webhosting or search engines).

Users of these services are granted new rights by the DSA Regulation, which have given them greater control over the services provided or, for example, over online shopping. These are positive changes, such as the possibility to defend oneself effectively if a platform removes content or blocks a user's account, greater protection against rogue traders (online marketplaces can no longer allow the sales for traders they do not have enough information about), or greater protection of minors (social networks and gaming platforms must e.g. avoid creating dependency among children).

A Digital Services Coordinator shall oversee compliance with the new rules. Already in August 2023, the Government approved a resolution stipulating that the Czech Telecommunications Office becomes this coordinator. Its remit will be regulated by the new Act on Digital Economy, which will adapt the DSA regulation to the Czech Republic's conditions. The Czech Telecommunications Office has been continuously preparing for its new role.

One of the most significant achievements of CTU in the past year was the preparation of a study which, for the first time ever, mapped the size and structure of the digital economy in the Czech Republic from the perspective of the DSA regulation. A total of 2 659 intermediary service providers were identified, covering a wide range of services from basic services of pure conveyance of information, caching and hosting services, to online platforms and marketplaces. Among the identified entities, there were 1 976 providers of pure conveyance, 3 caching providers, 564 hosting providers, 182 online platforms, 76 online marketplaces and 1 search engine. The share of the digital economy in the Czech Republic's GDP amounts almost to 5%.

CTU also published two guides to the DSA regulation, one for providers and one for users, and sent them to all identified intermediary service providers in January.

Representatives of CTU also attended 14 meetings of the European Digital Services Board in 2024.  Furthermore, CTU organised 3 workshops last year for representatives of the sector and other stakeholders to present our activities, explain the functioning of the DSA and to enable discussion.

In 2024, CTU received dozens of submissions in relation to the DSA. Eight of them were forwarded abroad. Among them we dealt with e.g. a complaint from the RRTV about fraudulent ads with political connotations on YouTube (referred to Ireland), a complaint about TEMU (also referred to the Irish coordinator), or a complaint in the Discord case - we referred the case to the Dutch Digital Services Coordinator for suspected breach of Articles 16 and 28 of the DSA Regulation.

Tereza Meravá
Spokesperson
Czech Telecommunication Office