Digital Services Act penalties and fines

Article 52 requires Member States to set a maximum fine of 6% of the provider's annual worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year for failure to comply with a DSA obligation. It separately requires a 1% maximum, based on annual income or worldwide turnover in that year, for incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information, failure to reply or rectify, and failure to submit to an inspection. National law supplies the specific penalty rules and procedure within those ceilings.

Article 74 gives the Commission different but related powers over VLOPs and VLOSEs. It may impose a fine up to 6% of total worldwide annual turnover in the preceding financial year when the provider intentionally or negligently infringes the DSA, disobeys interim measures, or breaches a commitment made binding by decision. A Commission fine up to 1% of total annual income or worldwide turnover applies to the procedural failures listed in Article 74(2), which also include non-compliance with Article 72 monitoring measures and access-to-file conditions.

Member States designate competent authorities and a Digital Services Coordinator. The Digital Services Coordinator is responsible for all matters relating to DSA supervision and enforcement in that Member State unless specific tasks are assigned to another competent authority; it remains responsible for national coordination.

The Member State of a provider's main establishment has exclusive national powers unless an Article 56 exception applies. For a provider without an EU establishment, competence can follow the Member State of its Article 13 legal representative. If the required representative is missing, all Member States may act subject to coordination and safeguards against duplicate sanctions.

The Commission has exclusive powers over Section 5 obligations of designated VLOPs and VLOSEs and also has powers over their other DSA obligations. The Member State of main establishment may enforce those other obligations only until the Commission initiates proceedings for the same infringement. Commission proceedings then relieve the national authority of its powers for that infringement.

The Commission may investigate a VLOP or VLOSE before formal proceedings through information requests, consent-based interviews, inspections, and access to data, IT systems, algorithms, and business-practice explanations. An information request may be simple or imposed by decision; the latter can carry periodic penalty payments for delay.

Before a non-compliance, fine, or periodic-payment decision, the Commission must communicate preliminary findings and allow the addressee a reasonable period of at least 14 days to comment. A final decision may rely only on objections on which the parties could comment. If the Commission establishes a breach, it can order corrective measures and, where the statutory conditions are met, impose a fine.

Periodic penalty payments are daily coercive payments. Under Article 52, Member State rules must cap them at 5% of average daily worldwide turnover or income in the preceding financial year per day from the date in the decision. A Digital Services Coordinator can use them to compel the end of an infringement or compliance with an investigative order, subject to national procedure.

Under Article 76, the Commission may impose up to 5% of average daily income or worldwide annual turnover in the preceding financial year per day to compel a correct and complete information response, an ordered inspection, interim measures, binding commitments, or a non-compliance decision. The decision sets the calculation start date. Once the obligation is satisfied, the Commission may fix the definitive amount below the original decision's amount.

Temporary access restriction is a separate last-resort judicial measure. It requires exhausted enforcement powers, a persistent infringement, serious harm that other powers cannot avoid, and the detailed conditions in Articles 51(3) and 82. Track it separately from monetary penalties.

A penalty record should tie each possible sanction to the authority, service classification, statutory trigger, financial denominator, procedural stage, and evidence. A percentage without those fields can overstate exposure or apply the wrong regime.

Keep separate entries for the alleged DSA infringement and any cooperation failure. An information defect or missed inspection can create procedural exposure even when the underlying infringement remains unproven.