Article 85 Information sharing system

Summary What does Article 85 of the DSA regulation say?

This article establishes the infrastructure backbone for regulatory coordination under the Digital Services Act.

It requires the Commission to set up and maintain a centralised information sharing system that serves as the primary communication channel between the key supervisory actors: Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission itself, and the Board.

The article also gives the Commission the authority to formalise how this system operates through implementing acts, including how it connects with other relevant systems.

Important points:

The Commission is required to establish and maintain a reliable and secure information sharing system for regulatory communications.
Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission, and the Board must use this system for all communications under this Regulation.
The Commission will define the practical and operational arrangements for the system's functioning and interoperability through implementing acts, following the advisory procedure in Article 88.

Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.

1. The Commission shall establish and maintain a reliable and secure information sharing system supporting communications between Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission and the Board. Other competent authorities may be granted access to this system where necessary for them to carry out the tasks conferred to them in accordance with this Regulation.
1. The Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission and the Board shall use the information sharing system for all communications pursuant to this Regulation.
1. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down the practical and operational arrangements for the functioning of the information sharing system and its interoperability with other relevant systems. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 88.

Relevant recitals

Recital 127 Cross-border cooperation and information sharing

Given the cross-border and cross-sectoral relevance of intermediary services, a high level of cooperation is necessary to ensure the consistent application of this Regulation and the availability of relevant information for the exercise of enforcement tasks through the information sharing system. Cooperation may take different forms depending on the issues at stake, without prejudice to specific joint investigation exercises. It is in any case necessary that the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment of a provider of intermediary services informs other Digital Services Coordinators about issues, investigations and actions which are going to be taken vis à vis such a provider. Moreover, when a competent authority in a Member State holds relevant information for an investigation carried out by the competent authorities in the Member State of establishment, or is able to gather such information located in its territory to which the competent authorities in the Member State of establishment do not have access, the Digital Services Coordinator of destination should assist the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment in a timely manner, including through the exercise of its powers of investigation in accordance with the applicable national procedures and the Charter. The addressee of such investigatory measures should comply with them and be liable in case of failure to comply, and the competent authorities in the Member State of establishment should be able to rely on the information gathered through mutual assistance, in order to ensure compliance with this Regulation.

Recital 148 Secure information sharing system among authorities

The effective enforcement and monitoring of this Regulation requires a seamless and real-time exchange of information among the Digital Services Coordinators, the Board and the Commission, based on the information flows and procedures set out in this Regulation. This may also warrant access to this system by other competent authorities, where appropriate. At the same time, given that the information exchanged may be confidential or involving personal data, it should remain protected from unauthorised access, in accordance with the purposes for which the information has been gathered. For this reason, all communications between those authorities should take place on the basis of a reliable and secure information sharing system, whose details should be laid down in an implementing act. The information sharing system may be based on existing internal market tools, to the extent that they can meet the objectives of this Regulation in a cost-effective manner.

Table of contents

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.