Article 9

Paragraph 1

Upon the receipt of an order to act against one or more specific items of illegal content, issued by the relevant national judicial or administrative authorities, on the basis of the applicable Union law or national law in compliance with Union law, providers of intermediary services shall inform the authority issuing the order, or any other authority specified in the order, of any effect given to the order without undue delay, specifying if and when effect was given to the order.

Obligations (1)

Order Response

Manual evidence High Priority

The provider must inform issuing authority of any effect given to orders to act against illegal content

Evidence guidance

Upload the internal process describing how your platform receives, validates, and acts on orders from Member State authorities (e.g. a runbook or policy doc). Include a sample or redacted log entry for a recent order, showing acknowledgement back to the issuing authority and the action taken.

Evaluation scenarios

No evaluation scenarios

None are defined for this paragraph.

Paragraph 2

Member States shall ensure that when an order referred to in paragraph 1 is transmitted to the provider, it meets at least the following conditions:

(a) that order contains the following elements:

(i) a reference to the legal basis under Union or national law for the order;

(ii) a statement of reasons explaining why the information is illegal content, by reference to one or more specific provisions of Union law or national law in compliance with Union law;

(iii) information identifying the issuing authority;

(iv) clear information enabling the provider of intermediary services to identify and locate the illegal content concerned, such as one or more exact URL and, where necessary, additional information;

(v) information about redress mechanisms available to the provider of intermediary services and to the recipient of the service who provided the content;

(vi) where applicable, information about which authority is to receive the information about the effect given to the orders;

(b) the territorial scope of that order, on the basis of the applicable rules of Union and national law, including the Charter, and, where relevant, general principles of international law, is limited to what is strictly necessary to achieve its objective;

(c) that order is transmitted in one of the languages declared by the provider of intermediary services pursuant to Article 11(3) or in another official language of the Member States, agreed between the authority issuing the order and that provider, and is sent to the electronic point of contact designated by that provider, in accordance with Article 11; where the order is not drafted in the language declared by the provider of intermediary services or in another bilaterally agreed language, the order may be transmitted in the language of the authority issuing the order, provided that it is accompanied by a translation into such declared or bilaterally agreed language of at least the elements set out in points (a) and (b) of this paragraph.

No obligations

This section delegates responsibilities to Member State authorities

Evaluation scenarios

No evaluation scenarios

None are defined for this paragraph.

Paragraph 3

The authority issuing the order or, where applicable, the authority specified therein, shall transmit it, along with any information received from the provider of intermediary services concerning the effect given to that order to the Digital Services Coordinator from the Member State of the issuing authority.

No obligations

This section delegates responsibilities to Member State authorities

Evaluation scenarios

No evaluation scenarios

None are defined for this paragraph.

Paragraph 4

After receiving the order from the judicial or administrative authority, the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State concerned shall, without undue delay, transmit a copy of the order referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article to all other Digital Services Coordinators through the system established in accordance with Article 85.

No obligations

This section delegates responsibilities to Member State authorities

Evaluation scenarios

No evaluation scenarios

None are defined for this paragraph.

Paragraph 5

At the latest when effect is given to the order or, where applicable, at the time provided by the issuing authority in its order, providers of intermediary services shall inform the recipient of the service concerned of the order received and to the effect given to it. Such information provided to the recipient of the service shall include a statement of reasons, the possibilities for redress that exist, and a description of the territorial scope of the order, in accordance with paragraph 2.

Obligations (1)

Recipient Notification

Manual evidence High Priority

The provider must inform affected service recipients about orders received and their effects

Evidence guidance

Upload the template or a redacted sample of the user notification sent when content is restricted following an authority order — it should state the restriction, the legal basis, and redress options available to the user.

Evaluation scenarios

No evaluation scenarios

None are defined for this paragraph.

Paragraph 6

The conditions and requirements laid down in this Article shall be without prejudice to national civil and criminal procedural law.

No obligations

This section only contains exceptions

Evaluation scenarios

No evaluation scenarios

None are defined for this paragraph.