Source: OJ L 277, 27/10/2022, p. 1–102Current language: EN
- Digital services act
Basic legislative acts
- DSA regulation
Article 1 Subject matter
Summary What does Article 1 of the DSA regulation say?
This is the foundational article of the regulation, setting out its overarching aim and the three broad pillars it establishes.
It frames the entire regulation around a dual purpose: ensuring the internal market for intermediary services functions properly, while simultaneously protecting fundamental rights and consumer protection in the online environment.
It then outlines the three main legal instruments the regulation uses to achieve this — liability exemptions, due diligence obligations, and enforcement mechanisms.
Important points:
- Providers of intermediary services are subject to harmonised rules across the EU internal market, covering liability, due diligence, and enforcement.
- The regulation establishes a conditional liability exemption framework — meaning providers are not automatically exempt and must meet certain conditions.
- Competent authorities are required to cooperate and coordinate with one another in the implementation and enforcement of the regulation.
Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
The aim of this Regulation is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market for intermediary services by setting out harmonised rules for a safe, predictable and trusted online environment that facilitates innovation and in which fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter, including the principle of consumer protection, are effectively protected.
This Regulation lays down harmonised rules on the provision of intermediary services in the internal market. In particular, it establishes:
a framework for the conditional exemption from liability of providers of intermediary services;
rules on specific due diligence obligations tailored to certain specific categories of providers of intermediary services;
rules on the implementation and enforcement of this Regulation, including as regards the cooperation of and coordination between the competent authorities.
Relevant recitals
Recital 4 Harmonised rules to safeguard the internal market
Therefore, in order to safeguard and improve the functioning of the internal market, a targeted set of uniform, effective and proportionate mandatory rules should be established at Union level. This Regulation provides the conditions for innovative digital services to emerge and to scale up in the internal market. The approximation of national regulatory measures at Union level concerning the requirements for providers of intermediary services is necessary to avoid and put an end to fragmentation of the internal market and to ensure legal certainty, thus reducing uncertainty for developers and fostering interoperability. By using requirements that are technology neutral, innovation should not be hampered but instead be stimulated.
Springlex and this text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. No liability is assumed for its content. The authentic version of this act is the one published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Definition
consumer
Definition
recipient of the service
Definition
information society service
Definition
intermediary service
- a ‘mere conduit’ service, consisting of the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service, or the provision of access to a communication network;
- a ‘caching’ service, consisting of the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service, involving the automatic, intermediate and temporary storage of that information, performed for the sole purpose of making more efficient the information's onward transmission to other recipients upon their request;
- a ‘hosting’ service, consisting of the storage of information provided by, and at the request of, a recipient of the service;