Art. 32 Right to information | DSA regulation | DSA

This article addresses the obligations of online marketplace platforms when they discover that a trader has been offering illegal products or services to consumers in the Union.

It sets out a two-track notification approach: direct communication to affected consumers where contact details are available, and public disclosure on the platform's interface where they are not.

The article connects closely to the broader trader accountability framework established in Articles 30 and 31, acting as the consumer-protection response mechanism when something goes wrong in that framework.

Important points:

Providers of online platforms allowing distance contracts must notify affected consumers of any illegal product or service, the trader's identity, and available means of redress.
This notification obligation is retrospective, covering only purchases made within the six months before the provider became aware of the illegality.
Where consumer contact details are unavailable, the provider must make the relevant information publicly accessible on its online interface.

1. Where a provider of an online platform allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders becomes aware, irrespective of the means used, that an illegal product or service has been offered by a trader to consumers located in the Union through its services, that provider shall inform, insofar as it has their contact details, consumers who purchased the illegal product or service through its services of the following:
  1. the fact that the product or service is illegal;
  2. the identity of the trader; and
  3. any relevant means of redress.
2. The obligation laid down in the first subparagraph shall be limited to purchases of illegal products or services made within the six months preceding the moment that the provider became aware of the illegality.
1. Where, in the situation referred to in paragraph 1, the provider of the online platform allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders does not have the contact details of all consumers concerned, that provider shall make publicly available and easily accessible on its online interface the information concerning the illegal product or service, the identity of the trader and any relevant means of redress.