DSA systemic risk assessments and mitigation for VLOPs and VLOSEs

Article 33 applies the enhanced VLOP/VLOSE section 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. The Commission VLOP/VLOSE overview also describes very large platforms and search engines as services with over 45 million users in the EU.

After designation, the service has four months before the enhanced duties in that section apply. A scope record should therefore identify the designated service, provider, EU main establishment, recipient-count basis, designation status, service features covered by the risk assessment, and the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment where relevant.

The assessment must identify, analyse, and assess systemic risks in the Union stemming from the design or functioning of the service and related systems, including algorithmic systems, and from the use made of the service. It must be service-specific and proportionate to severity and probability.

The Article 34 categories are not a generic enterprise risk list. They cover dissemination of illegal content; actual or foreseeable negative effects on fundamental rights; actual or foreseeable negative effects on civic discourse, electoral processes, and public security; and actual or foreseeable negative effects linked to gender-based violence, public health, protection of minors, and serious consequences for physical and mental well-being.

Article 34 requires assessments by the applicable date for the designated service, at least annually thereafter, and before deploying functionalities likely to have a critical impact on the identified risks. It also requires supporting documents to be preserved for at least three years after each assessment.

A useful evidence file should let an auditor trace each conclusion from risk signal to mitigation choice: service map, feature inventory, algorithmic-system descriptions, content moderation metrics, advertising-system review, recommender testing, complaint and notice data, consultation inputs, data-governance records, severity and probability rationale, and management approval. DSA recital 90 says providers should, where appropriate, involve representatives of recipients, potentially affected groups, independent experts, and civil-society organisations in risk assessments and mitigation design. Article 42(4) requires publication of information about those consultations where applicable.

Mitigation must be reasonable, proportionate, effective, tailored to the specific Article 34 risks, and assessed with particular consideration for fundamental-rights impacts. The evidence should explain why the measure fits the risk and why a less intrusive or more targeted measure would not achieve the same result.

Article 35 examples include adapting service design and interfaces, terms and enforcement, content moderation processes and resources, algorithmic and recommender systems, advertising systems, internal processes and supervision, cooperation with trusted flaggers and dispute-settlement decisions, codes of conduct or crisis protocols, user awareness and interface information, child-protection measures, and markings or reporting functions for generated or manipulated media.

Article 37 requires VLOPs and VLOSEs to undergo independent audits at their own expense at least once a year. Audit reports must include the period covered, auditor identity, interests declaration, elements audited, methodology, findings, consulted third parties, an audit opinion, and operational recommendations where the opinion is not positive.

Article 42 connects the risk program to public transparency. VLOPs and VLOSEs must transmit completed risk assessment results, mitigation measures, audit reports, audit implementation reports, and consultation information to the Digital Services Coordinator of establishment and the Commission, and make them public no later than three months after receiving each audit report, subject to permitted confidentiality redactions with reasons sent to authorities.

Article 41 requires an independent compliance function with authority, resources, and access to the management body. The head of compliance reports directly to the management body and may warn it about Article 34 risks or non-compliance. The management body remains accountable for governance arrangements, risk-management policies, periodic review, and adequate resources.

A mature DSA risk program therefore needs governance evidence as much as product evidence: named compliance officers, reporting lines, management-body minutes, risk-policy approval, conflicts controls, resource decisions, audit supervision, and documented follow-up on risk, audit, and regulator findings.