The Digital Services Act (“DSA”) is a European Union (“EU”) law that brings updated and harmonised rules for providers of digital services. As regards access to electronic evidence, especially in a cross-border context, the DSA (Article 10) importantly harmonises rules on disclosure orders addressed by authorities directly at digital service providers offering their services in the EU. While Article 10 of the DSA does not give any new powers to the authorities or provide itself the legal basis for the issuing of these orders, it puts in place common rules on their content and format as well as other procedural requirements.

This document analyses data disclosure orders under the DSA, in particular its Article 10. It looks into the topic of competent authorities, data that can be requested with the disclosure, minimum conditions for issuing the orders, user notification obligation and more.

The document was prepared within the framework of the SIRIUS Project. The SIRIUS Project has received funding from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments under Contribution Agreement No PI/2020/417-500.