The EU Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC) (the DSA) is an EU regulation, designed to provide greater online safety by setting out rules aimed at addressing various challenges related to digital services, including intermediary services and online platforms.

As we consider creating a safety environment for our fans, we welcome this initiative from the European Commission.

This policy includes information relevant to the DSA and how we implemented the requirements.

Who does the DSA apply to?

The DSA applies to organisations that provide online intermediary services in the EU, whether they are established in the EU or outside, where intermediary services means one of the following information society services:

• ‘mere conduit’ service, consisting 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 (Article 3(g)(i) DSA). Examples: internet service providers, direct messaging services, virtual private networks (VPNs).

• ‘caching’ service, consisting 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, performed for the sole purpose of making onward transmission more efficient to other recipients upon their request (Article 3(g)(ii) DSA). Examples: reverse proxies content delivery networks or content adaptation proxies.

• ‘hosting’ service, consisting of the storage of information provided by, and at the request of, a recipient of the service (Article 3(g)(iii) DSA). Examples: online marketplaces, cloud service providers, social media. 

How does the DSA apply to tonies?

Tonies are covered by the scope of application of the DSA as a hosting service provider because of the following:

Our Creative Tonies provides you with the possibility to listen to your own audio content. It is technically required to store the audio file on our server to enable you to assign the audio content to the Creative Tonie you selected. Since in this context providing the tonies’ ecosystem entails providing you with cloud storage, we provide an information society service within the meaning of the DSA. This service is a hosting service as defined in Article 3(g)(iii) DSA.

Our product review function gives you the opportunity to recommend products in our webshop and publish your reviews on our website. We store your reviews for the purpose of publication, which you initiate as the recipient of the service, and will publish them accordingly. This service is also a hosting service as defined in Article 3(g)(iii) DSA (This is our assumption. We are awaiting official designation.).

How is tonies compliant with the DSA?

tonies has drafted a DSA implementation policy for all societies of the tonies group that the DSA applies to. We have designated Single Points of Contact for communications with authorities and for the recipients of our service (i.e. for you as a user), provide Transparency in our Terms of Service and by publishing regular Transparency Reports, and have defined the processes for dealing with illegal content.

What organisational measures have been taken to comply with the DSA?

In tonies’ role as intermediary service provider

Designated Point of Contact

Pursuant to Articles 11, 12 DSA, tonies’ points of contact for communications with Member State authorities, the European Commission, the European Board for Digital Services, and recipients of the service can be reached via our Contact Form. Such communications should be in English or German.

Transparency Report

Pursuant to Article 15 DSA, we make our annual Transparency Report on content moderation carried out by us in the relevant period available via our navigation in the footer under “European Digital Services Act”.

Pursuant to Article 14 DSA, we explain in our Terms of Service how we deal with illegal content and content that violates the Terms of Service. Those Terms of Service are available at any time via our navigation in the footer under “Terms of Service”.

In tonies’ role as a hosting service provider

In addition to the transparency measures described above we are obliged to take measures to deal with illegal content pursuant to Article 16 DSA, due to the fact that we are considered as a hosting service provider.

Notice-and-action Process

To help us identify, review, and take actions, notices concerning violations against restrictions given by law or our Terms of Service, we rely on our Notice-and-action Process. To make sure that your notice regarding (potentially) illegal content or content that violates our Terms of Service that we receive through our notice-and-action mechanism reaches the responsible team, the preferred method for contacting tonies is the Contact Form. When using the contact form, please select the issue that corresponds best to your enquiryand specify your request by choosing the type of enquiry.

Anonymous notifications are also processed. For the purpose of anonymisation, the word "Anonymous" or another placeholder can be entered in the name field, for example. You can also enter an e-mail address that does not contain any attributes of your name.

We expect truthful and precise notices containing the following information:

• A duly reasoned explanation of why the individual or entity concerned considers the information in question to be illegal/inadmissible content, by answering the question:

• Why do you think this content is illegal or violates our Terms of Service?;

• A clear indication of the precise electronic location of that information, such as the precise URL address or addresses, or, where necessary, other information relevant to the nature of the content and the specific type of hosting service used to identify the infringing content, by answering the questions:

• Where is the content located (e.g. Web address, URL)?,

• How did you locate this content?,

• What is the alleged illegal content?;

• The name and email address of the individual or entity submitting the notice, unless the information is considered to relate to an offence referred to in Articles 3 to 7 of Directive 2011/93/EU (i.e. sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child pornography, contacting children for sexual purposes, including incitement, aiding and abetting and attempt);

• A statement that the individual or entity submitting the notice believes in good faith that the information and details contained in the report are accurate and complete.

The aforementioned information is necessary to help us ensure that we comply with our obligations and responsibilities.

After submitting your notice, you will receive an automatically generated confirmation of receipt. We will document the receipt, the verified category of the notified content, assessing the validity of the notice, and decide on the actions to be taken, based on the given information.

To avoid disabling or taking down legal content, the user who provided the allegedly illegal content will be consulted upon receipt of the notice, at least before any action on the allegedly illegal content is taken, to allow that user to submit a counter-notice.

We will provide feedback to the individual or entity submitting the notice about the outcome of their notice. The review, decision and implementation of the decision will be carried out by a natural person.

We will inform that individual or entity about our decision and explain the reasons for our decision, in particular why we consider the content in question to be illegal or legal. In case that individual or entity is not satisfied with the outcome of the notice-and-action procedure, they can challenge our decision. If you have received notification of our decision to remove content and have concerns about the removal, you can submit a complaint via our Contract Form.  If you are not satisfied with our decision, you can bring an action before the courts; we do not participate in out-of-court settlement procedures. We ask you, however, to get in contact with us to resolve any disputes before bringing an action.

Reporting of criminal offenses

If we become aware of information giving rise to a suspicion that a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of a person or persons has been, is being or may be committed, we shall immediately report our suspicion to the law enforcement or judicial authorities of the EU Member State or EU Member States concerned and shall provide any relevant information available to us.

Last Update: 15 February 2024