Digital Services Act (DSA) applies EU-wide; most transparency duties exempt micro/small enterprises
What changes
The DSA (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) has applied to all intermediary services (hosting, marketplaces, app stores, search engines, social networks, etc.) established or offering services in the EU since 17 February 2024, with baseline due-diligence duties: notice-and-action for illegal content, terms-of-service transparency, and a single point of contact for authorities. Most of the heavier Chapter III Section 3 duties (recommender-system transparency, targeted-advertising disclosures, out-of-court dispute settlement, trader traceability for marketplaces) do not apply to providers that qualify as micro or small enterprises, unless designated as a 'very large online platform' or 'very large online search engine' by the Commission.
Who is affected
Any business offering an online intermediary service to users in the EU: hosting user content, running a marketplace or listings feature, an app store, a search engine, a social network. A micro or small enterprise (fewer than 50 staff, turnover/balance sheet under EUR 10M) is exempt from the Section 3 transparency, recommender-system and advertising duties, and keeps that exemption for a further 12 months after it stops qualifying. A company that only sells its own goods or services online, without hosting third-party content or listings (a typical single-vendor e-commerce store or a SaaS product), is generally not itself an 'intermediary service' under the DSA at all.
Sizes: micro, small, medium, large · Sectors: Software / SaaS, E-commerce, Media / marketing · Applies if: We run a platform / marketplace; We sell online
What to do
Confirm whether your service is an 'intermediary service' under DSA Art. 3 (hosting/caching/mere-conduit, including any marketplace or listings feature). If so, and you are not micro/small, review the Section 3 duties (recommender transparency, ad disclosures, trader KYC for marketplaces). If micro/small, keep baseline notice-and-action and terms-of-service transparency in place, and re-check your size classification yearly.
Penalty
Up to 6% of annual worldwide turnover
Sources
- EUR-Lex – Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act), Art. 19 SME exemption and application date (eur-lex.europa.eu)
Last verified 8 September 2026. Informational only, not legal advice.