Source: OJ L 277, 27/10/2022, p. 1–102Current language: EN
- Digital services act
Basic legislative acts
- DSA regulation
Article 12 Points of contact for recipients of the service
Summary What does Article 12 of the DSA regulation say?
This article establishes a requirement for providers of intermediary services to set up a single point of contact specifically for recipients of the service.
While Article 11 addresses a similar requirement for communication with authorities, this article focuses on ensuring that ordinary users can reach providers directly, rapidly, and through electronic means.
Notably, providers must offer a choice of communication methods and cannot rely solely on automated tools, ensuring that human or human-accessible channels remain available.
Important points:
- Providers of intermediary services must designate a single point of contact accessible to recipients of the service by electronic means, in a user-friendly manner.
- Recipients must be allowed to choose their means of communication, and automated tools alone are not sufficient.
- Providers must make the contact information publicly available, easily accessible, and kept up to date.
Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
Providers of intermediary services shall designate a single point of contact to enable recipients of the service to communicate directly and rapidly with them, by electronic means and in a user-friendly manner, including by allowing recipients of the service to choose the means of communication, which shall not solely rely on automated tools.
In addition to the obligations provided under Directive 2000/31/EC, providers of intermediary services shall make public the information necessary for the recipients of the service in order to easily identify and communicate with their single points of contact. That information shall be easily accessible, and shall be kept up to date.
Relevant recitals
Recital 43 Point of contact for recipients of the service
Providers of intermediary services should also be required to designate a single point of contact for recipients of services, enabling rapid, direct and efficient communication in particular by easily accessible means such as telephone numbers, email addresses, electronic contact forms, chatbots or instant messaging. It should be explicitly indicated when a recipient of the service communicates with chatbots. Providers of intermediary services should allow recipients of services to choose means of direct and efficient communication which do not solely rely on automated tools. Providers of intermediary services should make all reasonable efforts to guarantee that sufficient human and financial resources are allocated to ensure that this communication is performed in a timely and efficient manner.
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
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;