Liability Exemptions for Intermediary Services
The DSA establishes three liability exemptions that protect intermediary services from liability for content provided by their users, provided certain conditions are met.
The Three Exemptions
Mere Conduit (Article 4): No liability for information transmitted if the provider doesn't initiate transmission, select recipients, or modify the information.
Caching (Article 5): No liability for automatic, temporary storage if the provider doesn't modify content and acts expeditiously to remove it when required.
Hosting (Article 6): No liability for stored information unless the provider has actual knowledge or awareness of illegal content and doesn't act expeditiously to remove it.
Key Principles
- Exemptions apply only to third-party content, not the provider's own information
- Voluntary content moderation doesn't automatically remove exemptions
- Providers must act quickly once they become aware of illegal content
- No general monitoring obligation