Your DSA Legal Representative in Ireland

Yes, if the DSA applies to you. The DSA legal representative under Article 13 is a separate appointment from the GDPR representative under Article 27. They are required by different regulations and serve different authorities. Many intermediary services need both. Gabsor can appoint both and manage them from one account.

The DSA covers three types of intermediary service. Mere conduit services transmit information or provide network access, for example ISPs and VPNs. Caching services store information temporarily to make onward transmission more efficient. Hosting services store information at the request of users, for example cloud, web hosting and file storage. Hosting includes two subcategories with extra duties: online platforms such as social networks, marketplaces, app stores, dating services, forums and user-generated content sites, and online search engines.

Not from this obligation. Micro and small enterprises are exempt from some DSA obligations, but the duty to appoint a legal representative under Article 13 applies regardless of size. If you provide an intermediary service to users in the EU without an EU establishment, you need a representative.

Article 13 requires the representative to be established in one of the Member States where you offer your services. Our representative is established in Ireland. Because of that, the Irish Digital Services Coordinator, Coimisiún na Meán, becomes the point of contact for DSA matters concerning your service.

Each Member State designates a Digital Services Coordinator responsible for the DSA. Article 13 requires that the appointment of a legal representative is notified to the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State where the representative is established. For our appointments that is Coimisiún na Meán in Ireland. We handle this notification for you. You must also publish the representative's details, and we give you the text to do so.

Yes. Under Article 13(3) DSA the legal representative can be held liable for the provider's non-compliance with the DSA, without prejudice to the provider's own liability. This is a key difference from the GDPR representative. It is why this is not a mailbox service, why we vet every client before accepting an appointment, and why pricing is quoted per client rather than fixed.

Failing to appoint a legal representative when Article 13 requires one is a breach of the DSA. DSA infringements can be fined up to 6% of annual worldwide turnover. Without a representative, authorities also have no designated point of contact for your service in the EU.

Because the representative carries liability exposure under Article 13(3), and that exposure varies with the type and scale of the service. A small file-hosting service and a large marketplace are very different appointments. We scope each one individually and quote a fixed annual fee for it.