Intermediary service
An intermediary service is a digital service that transmits, stores, or provides access to information provided by users. These services act as a "middleman" between the person who creates or uploads content and the people who view it. Examples include hosting providers, social media platforms, search engines, and cloud services.
Legal Basis
"Intermediary service" means one of the following information society services:
(a) a 'mere conduit' service that consists of the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service, or the provision of access to a communication network;
(b) a 'caching' service that consists of the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service, involving the automatic, intermediate and temporary storage of that information, for the sole purpose of making more efficient the information's onward transmission to other recipients upon their request;
(c) a 'hosting' service that consists of the storage of information provided by, and at the request of, a recipient of the service.
— Article 3, point (g), Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act)
Why It Matters
Intermediary services are the backbone of the digital economy and online political discourse. When political advertising is published or disseminated online, it almost always involves one or more intermediary services—from the hosting provider storing the content to the social media platform displaying it to users.
Understanding what qualifies as an intermediary service is crucial because different types of intermediaries have different obligations under EU law. The Digital Services Act (DSA) establishes liability exemptions and due diligence requirements based on the type of intermediary service. For political advertising specifically, Regulation 2024/900 imposes transparency obligations on providers and publishers, many of which are intermediary services.
For political actors, advertisers, and platforms, knowing whether a service qualifies as an intermediary—and which category it falls into—determines what transparency notices must be provided, what records must be kept, and how political advertisements must be labeled when disseminated to the public.
Key Points
- Three categories exist: mere conduit (transmission only), caching (temporary storage for efficiency), and hosting (storage at user's request)
- Liability framework: Intermediaries have conditional exemptions from liability for user-generated content under specific circumstances
- Hosting services are most relevant for political advertising, as they store and often disseminate content to the public
- Online platforms are a subcategory of hosting services that disseminate stored information to the public
- Obligations vary by type: hosting services face more transparency and content moderation requirements than mere conduit services
- Cross-cutting role: Political advertising regulation (TTPA) and digital services regulation (DSA) both apply to intermediary services handling political content
Intermediary service vs. Online platform
While all online platforms are intermediary services, not all intermediary services are online platforms. An intermediary service becomes an online platform when it not only stores information (hosting) but also actively disseminates that information to the public at the user's request.
For example, a basic web hosting provider that stores a campaign website is an intermediary service (hosting), but if it doesn't actively promote or distribute that content to others, it's not an online platform. By contrast, a social media network that stores user posts and distributes them to followers is both an intermediary service and an online platform.
This distinction matters because online platforms face additional obligations under both the DSA and TTPA, including stronger transparency requirements for political advertising, recommender system disclosures, and content moderation duties.