Pursuant to article 13 of the DSA, the legal representative of intermediary service providers ensures effective communication with Member States’ competent authorities, the Commission and the European Board for Digital Services (the “Board”), including receiving, complying with, and enforcing decisions related to the DSA. Providers of intermediary services must equip their legal representative with the necessary powers and resources for efficient cooperation and to comply with such decisions.
While this role doesn’t create an establishment in the EU, designating a legal representative confers competence to the Member State where the representative is located. In cases where providers do not designate a legal representative, competence lies with all Member States or the Commission, as applicable.

The legal representative of intermediary service providers must be designated in writing. Intermediary service providers must provide their legal representative’s contact details to the Digital Services Coordinator in the relevant Member State, ensuring the information is public, accessible, accurate, and updated.

The legal representative of intermediary service providers may be held liable for non-compliance with obligations under the DSA, without prejudice to the liability and legal actions that could be initiated against the provider of intermediary services.

The DSA applies to intermediary service providers offering their services to users that have their place of establishment or are located in the Union, irrespective of where the providers of those intermediary services have their place of establishment.

Intermediary service providers are defined quite broadly. Intermediary service providers can take various forms, such as: online marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms, app stores, online travel and accommodation platforms, internet service providers, cloud services or messaging services.
Intermediary services are defined in the DSA in a threefold approach:

1. a ‘mere conduit’ service, such as internet service providers, wireless networks, domain name registries, VPN, DNS services, VOIPs, interpersonal communication services;

2. a ‘caching’ service, such as content delivery networks, which store data for a limited time so they can be retrieved by a user or by third-parties

3. a ‘hosting’ service, consisting of the storage of information provided by, and at the request of, a recipient of the service – e.g., web or cloud hosting, including (permanent) file storage and sharing.

There are some exceptions to the applicability of the DSA, namely regarding micro and small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC (enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million).

These exceptions include:

1. Transparency reporting obligations for providers of intermediary services as per article 15(2).

2. Exclusion for some additional provisions applicable to providers of online platforms (article 19 to to 28, with the exception of article 24(3)).

3. Exclusion for some additional provisions applicable to providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders (article 29 to 32).

In-scope intermediary service providers need to comply with several obligations, including:

• Mechanisms to flag illegal content online;
• Rules to trace sellers to combat scams;
• The possibility for users to challenge content removal or restriction;
• Several transparency measures which include better informing users regarding T&C, as well as why some content or products are being recommended;
• Obligations bolstering the protection of minors on any platform in the EU;
• Specific obligations for very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large search engines (VLOSEs).
• New crisis response mechanism in situations such as a pandemic or war;
• Bans on targeted advertising on online platforms by profiling children or based on special categories of personal data;

Very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) are online services with over 45 million users in the EU (equivalent to 10% of the EU population), which must comply with stricter rules under the DSA due to their potential to cause societal risks, different in scope and impact from those caused by smaller platforms.
For a list of the VLOPs and VLOSEs that were designated by the Commission, please click the following link: DSA: Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines (europa.eu)

Member States will appoint an independent authority called “the Digital Services Coordinator”, which will be responsible for supervising intermediary service providers in their Member States and impose penalties, which include financial fines.

VLOPs and VLOSEs will be directly supervised by the EU Commission.

Fines can go up to 6% of the global annual turnover of the intermediary service provider.

Both the Digital Services Coordinator and the Commission may require immediate actions to address very serious harms.

As a last resort, it is possible to request a court for the suspension of the provider’s service.

No, the DSA complements sector-specific legislations such as:

• Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD);
• Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market;
• Consumer Protection Acquis, or;
• Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online (TCOR)

If you’re looking to appoint a legal representative pursuant to the Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online (TCOR), EDSR also provides these services. Please contact us to learn more or head over to our TCOR page!