What designation obliges you to do
Section 5 of Chapter III of the Digital Services Act — Articles 33 to 43 — contains the asymmetric obligations. They apply to designated services alone, on top of everything the Regulation already asks of an ordinary platform, and they start four months after the designation decision is notified.
Article 33 Designation and the 45 million threshold The Commission designates any platform or search engine with at least 45 million average monthly active recipients in the Union. On designation; reviewed on changing user numbers
Article 34 Systemic risk assessment An annual assessment of the systemic risks the service creates in the Union, across four statutory headings. At least annually, and before deploying functionality likely to affect risk
Article 35 Mitigation of risks Reasonable, proportionate and effective measures tailored to the risks identified under Article 34. Continuous
Article 37 Independent audit An annual audit of compliance with the whole asymmetric chapter, at the provider’s own expense. At least annually
Article 38 Recommender systems without profiling At least one recommender option that is not based on profiling must be available. Continuous
Article 39 Advertising repository A public, searchable repository of every advertisement carried, with an API, retained for one year. Continuous; one year retention after last display
Article 40 Data access for the Commission and vetted researchers Data must be made available to the Commission, national coordinators, and researchers vetted to study systemic risks. On request
Article 41 Internal compliance function An independent compliance function with sufficient authority, resources and direct board access. Standing
Article 42 Transparency reporting Six-monthly transparency reports, plus publication of risk assessments and audit reports. Every six months; risk and audit reports annually
Article 43 Supervisory fee An annual fee funding the Commission’s supervision, capped at 0.05% of the provider’s worldwide annual net income. Annual
Article 74 Fines and periodic penalty payments Fines up to 6% of worldwide annual turnover; periodic penalties up to 5% of average daily worldwide turnover. On non-compliance
Do VLOPs and VLOSEs have different duties?
No. Every obligation in this section applies to both tiers. What changes is what each one means in practice: a systemic risk assessment for a search engine concerns how results are ranked and presented, while for a feed-based platform it concerns amplification and recommendation. The article text is identical. The full comparison →