DSA average monthly active recipients publication and threshold FAQ

For this FAQ, average monthly active recipients means the Article 24(2) user-number publication for an online platform or online search engine: information on the average monthly active recipients of the service in the Union, calculated as an average over the past six months.

The relevant population is not worldwide users. The DSA text and Commission guidance frame the obligation around active recipients of the service in the Union, and the Commission guidance links that publication to Article 24(2), Recital 77, DSA definitions in Article 3, and the VLOP/VLOSE designation rule in Article 33.

Article 24(2) required providers to publish the first information by 17 February 2023 and to update it at least once every six months thereafter. The publication must be in a publicly available section of the online interface for each online platform or online search engine.

The publication duty is separate from authority-response duties. Under Article 24(3), the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment or the Commission may request the published information updated to the moment of the request, and may require additional calculation information, explanations, and substantiation about the data used.

Article 33 applies the very large online platform and very large online search engine regime to online platforms and online search engines with average monthly active recipients in the Union equal to or higher than 45 million, once designated by the Commission.

Designation is a Commission decision. The Commission can base the decision on Article 24(2) data reported by the provider, information requested under Article 24(3), or other information available to it. If designated, the additional VLOP/VLOSE obligations apply from four months after notification to the provider. The Commission terminates a designation if the service remains below the threshold for an uninterrupted period of one year.

The DSA does not require teams to publish their full internal calculation workbook on the public page. It does, however, let the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment and the Commission ask for explanations and substantiation about the calculation and the data used, without personal data.

A defensible evidence record should therefore explain the service boundary, the Union recipient population, the six-month averaging period, the data sources used, the assumptions applied, the publication location, and the authority-response owner. Keep methodology caveats visible in the internal record rather than turning them into unsupported precision in the public copy.