The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) regulates online intermediaries with a tiered, cumulative set of obligations: the bigger and more public your service, the more you must do for content moderation, transparency and user protection. This free checker maps your service type and EU monthly active users to the right DSA tier and lists the duties that apply, including the small-business exemptions. It is built for platform operators, trust-and-safety teams and counsel.
How it works
The DSA classifies services into nested layers. Every intermediary service (the broadest layer) owes baseline duties: a point of contact, legal representative if outside the EU, terms-of-service transparency and annual transparency reporting. Hosting services add a notice-and-action mechanism and statement-of-reasons obligations. Online platforms — hosting services that also disseminate content to the public — add internal complaint handling, trusted flaggers, measures against misuse, advertising transparency and (for consumer marketplaces) trader traceability.
Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) are online platforms or search engines reaching at least 45 million average monthly active recipients in the EU. They carry the strictest tier: systemic risk assessments, risk mitigation, independent audits, recommender-system transparency, data access for researchers and a crisis response mechanism.
A key relief: online platforms that are micro or small enterprises (fewer than 50 employees and turnover under EUR 10 million) are exempt from the additional online-platform-specific obligations — but never from the VLOP duties if designated.
Notes and example
A 20-person marketplace startup with 200,000 EU users is an online platform, but its small-enterprise status exempts it from the trusted-flagger, complaint-handling and dispute-settlement duties; it still owes the baseline intermediary and hosting duties. A social network with 50 million EU users is a VLOP and faces the full obligation stack regardless of headcount. A pure DNS resolver or internet exchange is a mere-conduit intermediary with only the baseline duties.
Use your average monthly active recipients in the EU, calculated per the Commission’s guidance. Everything is computed locally.