DSA Legal Representative Services in the EU

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is an EU regulation that, alongside the Digital Markets Act (DMA), aims to create a safer digital space. It sets rules for digital services acting as intermediaries between consumers and goods, services or content, fostering a safe, predictable and trusted online environment in which fundamental rights are protected.

Pursuant to Article 13 of the DSA, the legal representative of intermediary service providers ensures effective communication with Member States' competent authorities, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services, including receiving, complying with and enforcing decisions related to the DSA. The provider must equip its representative with the powers and resources necessary for efficient cooperation.

The legal representative must be designated in writing. Providers must communicate their representative's contact details to the Digital Services Coordinator in the relevant Member State, and this information must be public, accessible, accurate and kept up to date.

The legal representative 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 itself.

The DSA applies to intermediary service providers offering services to users established or located in the EU, irrespective of where the provider itself is established.

Intermediary services fall into three categories: a 'mere conduit' service (ISPs, wireless networks, domain name registries, VPNs, DNS, VoIP, communication services); a 'caching' service (e.g. content delivery networks); and a 'hosting' service (storage of information at the request of a recipient, e.g. web or cloud hosting, file storage and sharing). Note: online platforms are a specific category of hosting services (e.g. online marketplaces, social media platforms and app stores).

Yes. Micro enterprises (fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet not exceeding EUR 2 million) and small enterprises (fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover or balance not exceeding EUR 10 million), per Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, benefit from exceptions, including transparency reporting (Art. 15(2)), several online-platform obligations (Art. 19-28, except 24(3)), and distance-contract provisions (Art. 29-32).

In-scope providers must implement mechanisms to flag illegal content, trace sellers to combat scams, allow users to challenge content removal or restriction, meet transparency obligations on terms and recommender systems, protect minors, and — for VLOPs/VLOSEs — comply with additional systemic-risk obligations, a crisis-response mechanism and restrictions on targeted advertising based on profiling of minors or special categories of data.

Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) are services with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU (10% of the EU population), subject to stricter obligations due to their potential societal impact.

Each Member State appoints a Digital Services Coordinator responsible for supervision and enforcement, with fines of up to 6% of the provider's global annual turnover. VLOPs and VLOSEs are directly supervised by the European Commission, and courts can, as a last resort, order the suspension of a service.

No. The DSA complements sector-specific rules such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, EU consumer protection law, and the Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online (TCOR).