# Voluntary own-initiative investigations and legal compliance — DSA — context bundle > Focused context for a single provision, curated from overview.legal on 2026-08-22. Canonical page: https://overview.legal/laws/dsa/art-7 > Every item cites its source. Verify against the official text (EUR-Lex / wetten.overheid.nl) before relying on it. ## Provision ### Voluntary own-initiative investigations and legal compliance — Voluntary own-initiative investigations and legal compliance *DSA, dsa-art-7-en — https://overview.legal/laws/dsa/art-7* Providers of intermediary services shall not be deemed ineligible for the exemptions from liability referred to in Articles 4, 5 and 6 solely because they, in good faith and in a diligent manner, carry out voluntary own-initiative investigations into, or take other measures aimed at detecting, identifying and removing, or disabling access to, illegal content, or take the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of Union law and national law in compliance with Union law, including the requirements set out in this Regulation. ## Related recitals ### Recital 72 — traceable online platform traders In order to contribute to a safe, trustworthy and transparent online environment for consumers, as well as for other interested parties such as competing traders and holders of intellectual property rights, and to deter traders from selling products or services in violation of the applicable rules, online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders should ensure that such traders are traceable. The trader should therefore be required to provide certain essential information to the providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders, including for purposes of promoting messages on or offering products. That requirement should also be applicable to traders that promote messages on products or services on behalf of brands, based on underlying agreements. Those providers of online platforms should store all information in a secure manner for the duration of their contractual relationship with the trader and 6 months thereafter, to allow any claims to be filed against the trader or orders related to the trader to be complied with. This obligation is necessary and proportionate, so that the information can be accessed, in accordance with the applicable law, including on the protection of personal data, by public authorities and private parties with a legitimate interest, including through the orders to provide information referred to in this Regulation. This obligation leaves unaffected potential obligations to preserve certain content for longer periods of time, on the basis of other Union law or national laws, in compliance with Union law. Without prejudice to the definition provided for in this Regulation, any trader, irrespective of whether it is a natural or legal person, identified on the basis of Article 6a(1), point (b), of Directive 2011/83/EU and Article 7(4), point (f), of Directive 2005/29/EC should be traceable when offering a product or service through an online platform. Directive 2000/31/EC obliges all information society services providers to render easily, directly and permanently accessible to the recipients of the service and competent authorities certain information allowing the identification of all providers. The traceability requirements for providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders set out in this Regulation do not affect the application of Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 (30), which pursues other legitimate public interest objectives. ### Recital 74 — online platform interface design and trader compliance Providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders should design and organise their online interface in a way that enables traders to comply with their obligations under relevant Union law, in particular the requirements set out in Articles 6 and 8 of Directive 2011/83/EU, Article 7 of Directive 2005/29/EC, Articles 5 and 6 of Directive 2000/31/EC and Article 3 of Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (31). For that purpose, the providers of online platforms concerned should make best efforts to assess whether the traders using their services have uploaded complete information on their online interfaces, in line with relevant applicable Union law. The providers of online platforms should ensure that products or services are not offered as long as such information is not complete. This should not amount to an obligation for the providers of online platforms concerned to generally monitor the products or services offered by traders through their services nor a general fact-finding obligation, in particular to assess the accuracy of the information provided by traders. The online interfaces should be user-friendly and easily accessible for traders and consumers. Additionally and after allowing the offering of the product or service by the trader, the providers of online platforms concerned should make reasonable efforts to randomly check whether the products or services offered have been identified as being illegal in any official, freely accessible and machine-readable online databases or online interfaces available in a Member State or in the Union. The Commission should also encourage traceability of products through technology solutions such as digitally signed Quick Response codes (or ‘QR codes’) or non-fungible tokens. The Commission should promote the development of standards and, in the absence of them, of market led solutions which can be acceptable to the parties concerned. ## Related topics - **DSA Scope and Digital Services Coverage** — https://overview.legal/topics/dsa-scope-digital-services ## Legal Framework --- Generated by overview.legal · https://overview.legal/laws/dsa/art-7 · 2026-08-22