Source: OJ L 277, 27/10/2022, p. 1–102Current language: EN
- Digital services act
Basic legislative acts
- DSA regulation
Article 53 Right to lodge a complaint
Summary What does Article 53 of the DSA regulation say?
This article establishes the right of recipients of intermediary services to file complaints against providers who they believe have infringed the Digital Services Act.
It outlines how such complaints are routed through the Digital Services Coordinator system, connecting to the broader enforcement and supervision framework established elsewhere in the regulation.
The article also ensures procedural fairness by guaranteeing that both parties have the right to be heard throughout the process.
Important points:
- Recipients of the service (or bodies acting on their behalf) can lodge a complaint with the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State where they are located or established.
- Digital Services Coordinators are required to assess complaints and, where appropriate, forward them to the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment or another competent authority within their Member State.
- Both the complainant and the provider of intermediary services have the right to be heard and kept informed about the status of the complaint during proceedings.
Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
Recipients of the service and any body, organisation or association mandated to exercise the rights conferred by this Regulation on their behalf shall have the right to lodge a complaint against providers of intermediary services alleging an infringement of this Regulation with the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State where the recipient of the service is located or established. The Digital Services Coordinator shall assess the complaint and, where appropriate, transmit it to the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment, accompanied, where considered appropriate, by an opinion. Where the complaint falls under the responsibility of another competent authority in its Member State, the Digital Services Coordinator receiving the complaint shall transmit it to that authority. During these proceedings, both parties shall have the right to be heard and receive appropriate information about the status of the complaint, in accordance with national law.
Relevant recitals
Recital 118 Right to lodge complaints with coordinators
In order to ensure effective enforcement of the obligations laid down in this Regulation, individuals or representative organisations should be able to lodge any complaint related to compliance with those obligations with the Digital Services Coordinator in the territory where they received the service, without prejudice to this Regulation’s rules on allocation of competences and to the applicable rules on handling of complaints in accordance with national principles of good administration. Complaints could provide a faithful overview of concerns related to a particular intermediary service provider’s compliance and could also inform the Digital Services Coordinator of any more cross-cutting issues. The Digital Services Coordinator should involve other national competent authorities as well as the Digital Services Coordinator of another Member State, and in particular the one of the Member State where the provider of intermediary services concerned is established, if the issue requires cross-border cooperation.
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;
Definition
Digital Services Coordinator of establishment