Penalties
1. Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of this Regulation by hosting service providers and shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. Such penalties shall be limited to addressing infringements of Article 3(3) and (6), Article 4(2) and (7), Article 5(1), (2), (3), (5) and (6), Articles 6, 7, 10 and 11, Article 14(5), Article 15(1) and Article 17.
The penalties referred to in the first subparagraph shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Member States shall, by 7 June 2022, notify the Commission of those rules and of those measures and shall notify it, without delay, of any subsequent amendment affecting them.
2. Member States shall ensure that the competent authorities, when deciding whether to impose a penalty and when determining the type and level of penalty, take into account all relevant circumstances, including:
(a)
the nature, gravity and duration of the infringement;
(b)
whether the infringement was intentional or negligent;
(c)
previous infringements by the hosting service provider;
(d)
the financial strength of the hosting service provider;
(e)
the level of cooperation of the hosting service provider with the competent authorities;
(f)
the nature and size of the hosting service provider, in particular whether it is a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise;
(g)
the degree of fault of the hosting service provider, taking into account the technical and organisational measures taken by the hosting service provider to comply with this Regulation.
3. Member States shall ensure that a systematic or persistent failure to comply with obligations pursuant to Article 3(3) is subject to financial penalties of up to 4 % of the hosting service provider’s global turnover of the preceding business year.
Technical requirements and amendments to the annexes
1. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 20 in order to supplement this Regulation with the necessary technical requirements for the electronic means to be used by competent authorities for the transmission of removal orders.
2. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 20 to amend the annexes in order to effectively address a possible need for improvements regarding the content of templates for removal orders and to provide information on the impossibility to execute removal orders.
Exercise of the delegation
1. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.
2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article 19 shall be conferred on the Commission for an indeterminate period of time from 7 June 2022.
3. The delegation of power referred to in Article 19 may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day after the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.
4. Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making.
5. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council.
6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 19 shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.
Monitoring
1. Member States shall collect from their competent authorities and the hosting service providers under their jurisdiction and send to the Commission by 31 March of every year information about the actions they have taken in accordance with this Regulation in the previous calendar year. That information shall include:
(a)
the number of removal orders issued and the number of items of terrorist content which have been removed or access to which has been disabled and the speed of the removal or disabling;
(b)
the specific measures taken pursuant to Article 5, including the number of items of terrorist content which have been removed or access to which has been disabled and the speed of the removal or disabling;
(c)
the number of access requests issued by competent authorities regarding content preserved by hosting service providers pursuant to Article 6;
(d)
the number of complaint procedures initiated and actions taken by the hosting service providers pursuant to Article 10;
(e)
the number of administrative or judicial review proceedings initiated and decisions taken by the competent authority in accordance with national law.
2. By 7 June 2023, the Commission shall establish a detailed programme for monitoring the outputs, results and impacts of this Regulation. The monitoring programme shall set out the indicators and the means by which and the intervals at which the data and other necessary evidence are to be collected. It shall specify the actions to be taken by the Commission and by the Member States in collecting and analysing the data and other evidence to monitor the progress and evaluate this Regulation pursuant to Article 23.
Implementation report
By 7 June 2023, the Commission shall submit a report on the application of this Regulation to the European Parliament and to the Council. That report shall include information on monitoring under Article 21 and information resulting from the transparency obligations under Article 8. Member States shall provide the Commission with the information necessary for the drafting of the report.
Evaluation
By 7 June 2024, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Regulation and submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on its application including:
(a)
the functioning and effectiveness of the safeguard mechanisms, in particular those provided for in Article 4(4), Article 6(3) and Articles 7 to 11;
(b)
the impact of the application of this Regulation on fundamental rights, in particular the freedom of expression and information, the respect for private life and the protection of personal data; and
(c)
the contribution of this Regulation to the protection of public security.
Where appropriate, the report shall be accompanied by legislative proposals.
Member States shall provide the Commission with the information necessary for the drafting of the report.
The Commission shall also assess the necessity and feasibility of establishing a European platform on terrorist content online for facilitating communication and cooperation under this Regulation.
Entry into force and application
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
It shall apply from 7 June 2022.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
