Source: OJ L 277, 27/10/2022, p. 1–102Current language: EN
- Digital services act
Basic legislative acts
- DSA regulation
Article 76 Periodic penalty payments
Summary What does Article 76 of the DSA regulation say?
This article gives the Commission a coercive financial tool in the form of periodic penalty payments, designed to compel providers of very large online platforms or very large online search engines to comply with various prior Commission decisions and obligations.
Rather than being a one-off fine, these are daily accumulating payments intended to pressure ongoing compliance.
The article also connects closely to several other articles in the regulation, acting as an enforcement mechanism that reinforces decisions made under Articles 67, 69, 70, 71, 73 and 75.
Notably, the Commission retains discretion to reduce the final amount owed once compliance has been achieved.
Important points:
- The Commission may impose periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of average daily income or worldwide annual turnover per day on providers of very large online platforms, very large online search engines, or other relevant persons.
- The payments are a compulsion tool, triggered by non-compliance with information requests, inspections, interim measures, binding commitments, or non-compliance decisions.
- The Commission may set the definitive amount of the penalty lower than originally decided if the subject has satisfied the obligation the payment was meant to enforce.
Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
The Commission may adopt a decision, imposing on the provider of the very large online platform or of the very large online search engine concerned or other person referred to in Article 67(1), as applicable, periodic penalty payments not exceeding 5 % of the average daily income or worldwide annual turnover in the preceding financial year per day, calculated from the date appointed by the decision, in order to compel them to:
supply correct and complete information in response to a decision requiring information pursuant to Article 67;
submit to an inspection which it has ordered by decision pursuant to Article 69;
comply with a decision ordering interim measures pursuant to Article 70(1);
comply with commitments made legally binding by a decision pursuant to Article 71(1);
comply with a decision pursuant to Article 73(1), including where applicable the requirements it contains relating to the action plan referred to in Article 75.
Where the provider of the very large online platform or of the very large online search engine concerned or other person referred to in Article 67(1) has satisfied the obligation which the periodic penalty payment was intended to enforce, the Commission may fix the definitive amount of the periodic penalty payment at a figure lower than that under the original decision.
Relevant recitals
Recital 144 Fines and periodic penalty payments
Compliance with the relevant obligations imposed under this Regulation should be enforceable by means of fines and periodic penalty payments. To that end, appropriate levels of fines and periodic penalty payments should also be laid down for non-compliance with the obligations and breach of the procedural rules, subject to appropriate limitation periods in accordance with the principles of proportionality and ne bis in idem. The Commission and the relevant national authorities should coordinate their enforcement efforts in order to ensure that those principles are respected. In particular, the Commission should take into account any fines and penalties imposed on the same legal person for the same facts through a final decision in proceedings relating to an infringement of other Union or national rules, so as to ensure that the overall fines and penalties imposed are proportionate and correspond to the seriousness of the infringements committed. All decisions taken by the Commission under this Regulation are subject to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union in accordance with the TFEU. The Court of Justice of the European Union should have unlimited jurisdiction in respect of fines and penalty payments in accordance with Article 261 TFEU.
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Definition
recipient of the service
Definition
information society service
Definition
turnover
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
online platform
Definition
online search engine