DIGITAL SERVICES ACT ENFORCEMENT IN THE NATIONAL CONTEXT – THE CASE OF SLOVAKIA

Abstract

The enforcement of the Digital Services Act is ensured through both the European Union and different competent national authorities. In the national context, the main competences are entrusted to Digital Services Coordinators designated by individual Member States (the Council for Media Services in Slovakia). Other national authorities may also be assigned specific tasks or sectors by the Member State in this regard, e. g. courts or other public authorities may adjudicate different civil, administrative or criminal delicts that sanction the dissemination of different categories of illegal content on the Internet. In this paper, we examine the national enforcement of Digital Services Act provisions in Slovakia, focusing on the established caselaw of the Council for Media Services and reflecting the limitation of its competences in the national legislation through the restriction of illegal content categories that may be investigated and sanctioned by this authority. The position of the Council for Media Services is further examined in light of the case-law of other national authorities with competences in this regard, addressing also the role of the recently established out-of-court dispute settlement body certified in Slovakia. We also look at the practical utilization of Articles 9 and 10 of the Digital Services Act enabling the competent authorities to issue orders to the providers of intermediary services to act against illegal content or to provide specific information about specific individual recipients of their services, focusing on selected intermediaries with significant representation in the national digital market. On this basis, we try to identify the emerging practices in the national enforcement of Digital Services Act and the processes established to ensure the effective sanctioning of the publication and dissemination of illegal content online.