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Article 15

Transparency reporting obligations for providers of intermediary services

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Evaluation scenarios 1
Paragraph 1

Providers of intermediary services shall make publicly available, in a machine-readable format and in an easily accessible manner, at least once a year, clear, easily comprehensible reports on any content moderation that they engaged in during the relevant period. Those reports shall include, in particular, information on the following, as applicable:

(a) for providers of intermediary services, the number of orders received from Member States’ authorities including orders issued in accordance with Articles 9 and 10, categorised by the type of illegal content concerned, the Member State issuing the order, and the median time needed to inform the authority issuing the order, or any other authority specified in the order, of its receipt, and to give effect to the order;
(b) for providers of hosting services, the number of notices submitted in accordance with Article 16, categorised by the type of alleged illegal content concerned, the number of notices submitted by trusted flaggers, any action taken pursuant to the notices by differentiating whether the action was taken on the basis of the law or the terms and conditions of the provider, the number of notices processed by using automated means and the median time needed for taking the action;
(c) for providers of intermediary services, meaningful and comprehensible information about the content moderation engaged in at the providers’ own initiative, including the use of automated tools, the measures taken to provide training and assistance to persons in charge of content moderation, the number and type of measures taken that affect the availability, visibility and accessibility of information provided by the recipients of the service and the recipients’ ability to provide information through the service, and other related restrictions of the service; the information reported shall be categorised by the type of illegal content or violation of the terms and conditions of the service provider, by the detection method and by the type of restriction applied;
(d) for providers of intermediary services, the number of complaints received through the internal complaint-handling systems in accordance with the provider’s terms and conditions and additionally, for providers of online platforms, in accordance with Article 20, the basis for those complaints, decisions taken in respect of those complaints, the median time needed for taking those decisions and the number of instances where those decisions were reversed;
(e) any use made of automated means for the purpose of content moderation, including a qualitative description, a specification of the precise purposes, indicators of the accuracy and the possible rate of error of the automated means used in fulfilling those purposes, and any safeguards applied.
Obligations (1)
Transparency Reporting Annual
Evaluator scenario High Priority
The provider must publish annual transparency reports about content moderation activities (unless a micro or small platform)
  • type of illegal content in government requests
  • name of member state issuing requests
  • median time to acknowledge receipt of government requests
  • median time to fulfil government orders
  • number of reports of illegal content
  • number of reports received by trusted flaggers
  • actions taken on reports, divided by law violations vs terms violations
  • number of reports processed automatically
  • median time for enforcing content moderation decisions
1 evaluation scenario
Evaluation scenarios (1)
Transparency Reporting Annual
1 scenario
Given

A browser accessing the platform's home page anonymously

When

We search for and access the platform's annual transparency report on content moderation

Then
  • The transparency report is findable within a reasonable number of clicks (typically in footer, legal/transparency section, or help center)
  • The report is in a machine-readable format (e.g., HTML, JSON, XML, CSV, or structured PDF)
  • The report includes all required categories of information - government orders by type and Member State, notice handling statistics, content moderation metrics, complaint handling data, and automated tools disclosure
  • The report covers at least a 12-month reporting period
  • The report was published within the last year (demonstrating annual publication requirement)
  • The report is publicly accessible without requiring a login or payment
Platform types
all
Paragraph 2

Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to providers of intermediary services that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC and which are not very large online platforms within the meaning of Article 33 of this Regulation.

No obligations
This section only contains exceptions
Evaluation scenarios
No evaluation scenarios
None are defined for this paragraph.
Paragraph 3

The Commission may adopt implementing acts to lay down templates concerning the form, content and other details of reports pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article, including harmonised reporting periods. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 88.

No obligations
This section delegates authority to the Commission for future guidelines
Evaluation scenarios
No evaluation scenarios
None are defined for this paragraph.
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