{"id":687,"date":"2026-07-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/dsa-trusted-flagger-brand-protection\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:00:00","slug":"dsa-trusted-flagger-brand-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/blog\/dsa-trusted-flagger-brand-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"DSA notice and action and trusted flaggers: a playbook for brand owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Digital Services Act (DSA) gives brand owners two routes against counterfeit listings on online platforms in the EU: the notice-and-action mechanism, open to anyone, and trusted flaggers, whose notices platforms must handle with priority. For DSA trusted flagger brand protection, the practical question is not whether to apply for the status yourself, which a single brand rarely can, but how to write notices that platforms must act on and when to route volume through an organisation that already holds it. This playbook is for brand protection teams and in-house counsel selling in the EU.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Every hosting service must offer an electronic notice channel, and a sufficiently precise notice gives the platform <strong>actual knowledge<\/strong> of the infringing listing (DSA, Article 16).<\/li>\n<li>Trusted flaggers are entities, not individuals, designated by the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State where they are established; their notices get priority on all online platforms.<\/li>\n<li>The Commission&#8217;s list already includes organisations with intellectual property expertise, including anti-counterfeiting and trade associations.<\/li>\n<li>Platforms must suspend users who frequently post manifestly illegal content, but also people who frequently send <strong>manifestly unfounded notices<\/strong> (Article 23).<\/li>\n<li>The DSA speeds up removals; it does not replace trademark rights, customs action or court proceedings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How does DSA notice and action work for IP infringements?<\/h2>\n<p>The DSA (Regulation (EU) 2022\/2065) has applied in full since 17 February 2024. Article 16 requires every hosting service, including marketplaces and social networks, to provide an easy, electronic way to report specific items of illegal content. A counterfeit listing or an unauthorised use of your trademark is illegal content for this purpose. The notice must make it possible to submit the following elements:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Element required by Article 16(2)<\/th>\n<th>What it means for a trademark notice<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>(a) A substantiated explanation of why the content is illegal<\/td>\n<td>Identify the registration (number, office, goods covered) and explain why the listing infringes: counterfeit, identical sign on identical goods, misleading use<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>(b) The exact electronic location<\/td>\n<td>One URL per listing, plus seller ID or storefront link where the platform needs it<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>(c) Name and email of the notifier<\/td>\n<td>The rights holder or its authorised representative, with proof of authority if requested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>(d) A statement of good faith<\/td>\n<td>Confirmation that the information is accurate and complete<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Under Article 16(3), a notice gives the platform actual knowledge where a diligent provider could identify the illegality without a detailed legal examination. That is why obvious counterfeits are well suited to notices, while lookalike branding or disputed parallel imports usually need a court or a fuller legal analysis. The platform must confirm receipt, decide in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner, and tell you the outcome with information on redress (Article 16(4) to (6)).<\/p>\n<p>The seller receives a statement of reasons (Article 17). If the platform rejects your notice, you can use its internal complaint-handling system, which must remain open for at least six months after the decision (Article 20).<\/p>\n<h2>What is a trusted flagger and who can become one?<\/h2>\n<p>A trusted flagger is an entity whose notices, within its designated area of expertise, online platforms must prioritise and decide &#8220;without undue delay&#8221; (Article 22(1)). The status is awarded by the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC), the national DSA authority, of the Member State where the applicant is established. In Spain, the Ministry for Digital Transformation announced on <a href=\"https:\/\/cnmc.es\/prensa\/coordinador-servicios-digitales-20240124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">24 January 2024<\/a> that the CNMC would act as DSC, including for certifying trusted flaggers.<\/p>\n<p>The applicant must show three things (Article 22(2)):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>particular expertise and competence in detecting, identifying and notifying illegal content;<\/li>\n<li>independence from any provider of online platforms;<\/li>\n<li>that it submits notices diligently, accurately and objectively.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Recital 61 says the status should go to entities rather than individuals, that the overall number should be limited, and that industry associations representing their members are encouraged to apply. Trusted flaggers must publish an annual report on their notices (Article 22(3)), and their status can be suspended or revoked if they send too many imprecise or unsubstantiated notices (Article 22(6) and (7)). According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/policies\/trusted-flaggers-under-dsa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Commission&#8217;s trusted flagger page<\/a>, the status is valid across the EU, whichever Member State awarded it.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission publishes the list of designated entities. Among those listed for intellectual property infringements before the date of this article are the anti-counterfeiting network REACT in the Netherlands, the German online retailers&#8217; association BVOH and the Italian IP firm Barzan\u00f2 &amp; Zanardo. On 29 May 2026 the Commission also published <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/library\/draft-commission-guidelines-trusted-flaggers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft guidelines on trusted flaggers<\/a> for targeted consultation, covering award, suspension and revocation of the status and how platforms should prioritise notices.<\/p>\n<h2>Trusted flagger, direct notices or brand programmes: which route fits?<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Route<\/th>\n<th>Who uses it<\/th>\n<th>Priority<\/th>\n<th>Best for<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Direct notice under Article 16<\/td>\n<td>Any rights holder or its representative<\/td>\n<td>Timely, diligent handling; no legal priority<\/td>\n<td>Occasional cases, new markets, evidence-building<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Notice through a trusted flagger<\/td>\n<td>Members or clients of a designated entity within its expertise<\/td>\n<td>Priority and decision without undue delay (Article 22)<\/td>\n<td>High volumes of clear counterfeits across several platforms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Platform brand programme<\/td>\n<td>Brands enrolled in a platform&#8217;s own scheme<\/td>\n<td>Set by the platform&#8217;s terms<\/td>\n<td>Faster tools on one platform; not a substitute for DSA rights<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Court or customs action<\/td>\n<td>Rights holder through its lawyers or customs application<\/td>\n<td>Binding order<\/td>\n<td>Repeat sellers, stock, damages, cases needing legal analysis<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The routes combine. A brand programme gives faster tools on one marketplace; DSA notices create a legal record on every platform; a trusted flagger adds priority for volume. Brand programmes are not guaranteed to work: on 20 July 2026 the Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/news\/commission-fines-aliexpress-eu550-million-breaching-digital-services-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fined AliExpress \u20ac550 million<\/a> under the DSA after finding, among other things, that its mandatory brand authorisation system was ineffective and understaffed.<\/p>\n<h2>A DSA playbook for brand owners in seven steps<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Map your rights.<\/strong> List the EU trade marks, national marks, designs and copyright you can rely on, with the goods covered. A notice is only as good as the right behind it.<\/li>\n<li>Monitor. Watch the marketplaces and social platforms where your customers buy, and capture each listing with date, URL, seller and price.<\/li>\n<li>Triage. Send notices for clear cases (counterfeits, identical signs on identical goods). Route lookalikes, comparative claims and resale of genuine goods to legal review first.<\/li>\n<li>Use a standard template that covers the four Article 16 elements and attaches registration certificates.<\/li>\n<li>Log every response. Keep the platform&#8217;s confirmation, decision and statement of reasons; they are evidence if you escalate.<\/li>\n<li>Escalate. Use the internal complaint system for rejected notices, and ask the platform to apply Article 23 to sellers who keep returning.<\/li>\n<li>Scale. Where volume justifies it, work with a trusted flagger with intellectual property expertise, and move repeat or large sellers to customs or court.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>What this means for your business<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Treat DSA notices as a legal process, not a web form: the notice and the platform&#8217;s reply form a record you may need later.<\/li>\n<li>Before considering a trusted flagger, measure your volume. A few notices a month rarely justify it; hundreds across several platforms may.<\/li>\n<li>Check that a trusted flagger&#8217;s designated area of expertise covers intellectual property, and agree how notices will be prepared and reported.<\/li>\n<li>Keep the corridor in view. The DSA applies to services offered in the EU; in Latin America and Africa, platform policies and national law decide what happens.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you need monitoring, notices and follow-up actions run as one process, our <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/services\/legal-ip\/\">trademark watch and enforcement team<\/a> can design the workflow and coordinate it with your <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/services\/trademarks\/\">EU and Latin American trademark registrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Where brand owners get DSA notices wrong<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Over-notifying. Article 23(2) requires platforms to suspend, after a warning, the processing of notices from those who frequently send manifestly unfounded ones. Reporting genuine second-hand goods or parallel imports without analysis is a common trigger.<\/li>\n<li>Thin notices. No registration number, no explanation or a search-results URL instead of the exact listing gives the platform reasons to reject.<\/li>\n<li>Expecting the DSA to identify the seller. Platforms must check trader data (Article 30), but obtaining it for litigation usually needs a court order.<\/li>\n<li>Stopping at removal. Without follow-up, repeat sellers reappear under new storefronts and the same stock reaches the market.<\/li>\n<li>Assuming trusted flagger status will be granted. It is limited, requires independence from platforms and is reviewed if quality drops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most of these problems come from treating platform enforcement, trademark prosecution and litigation as separate jobs. A single team that sees all three keeps notices accurate and knows when to stop notifying and start a case.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Can a brand owner become a DSA trusted flagger?<\/h3>\n<p>In principle any entity established in the EU can apply to its national Digital Services Coordinator, but it must show particular expertise, independence from online platforms and diligent, accurate notices. The DSA encourages industry associations to apply and expects a limited number of trusted flaggers, so most individual brands work through an existing organisation instead.<\/p>\n<h3>How quickly must a platform act on a trademark notice?<\/h3>\n<p>The DSA sets no fixed number of hours. Platforms must decide on notices in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner, and notices from trusted flaggers must be prioritised and decided without undue delay. Keeping records of response times helps if you need to escalate or complain.<\/p>\n<h3>What happens if a notice turns out to be wrong?<\/h3>\n<p>The seller receives a statement of reasons and can complain through the platform&#8217;s internal system. If you frequently send manifestly unfounded notices, the platform must warn you and may then suspend the processing of your notices for a reasonable period. Reviewing borderline cases before notifying protects your account.<\/p>\n<h3>Can IP Global Guard run DSA notices for my brand?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. We prepare and coordinate notices to EU platforms, follow up complaints and repeat sellers, and connect the results to customs applications and court action, acting directly where our professionals are entitled and through qualified representatives otherwise. Outside the EU, we coordinate local correspondents in Latin America and Africa.<\/p>\n<h2>How IP Global Guard helps you enforce on platforms<\/h2>\n<p>The DSA rewards brand owners who notify precisely and follow through. IP Global Guard, the IP services line of META Channel Corporation Limited, connects platform notices with trademark filings, customs and litigation across more than 25 jurisdictions in <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/coverage\/\">Europe, Latin America and Africa<\/a>, with one strategy and one billing relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Tell us which platforms carry copies of your products, roughly how many listings you see each month and which registrations you hold. We will propose a notice workflow and the right escalation for repeat sellers. <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/contact\/\">Speak to our brand protection team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not replace an assessment of your specific case.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/eli\/reg\/2022\/2065\/oj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2022\/2065 (Digital Services Act), 19 October 2022<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/policies\/trusted-flaggers-under-dsa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, Trusted flaggers under the Digital Services Act (page updated 12 June 2026)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/library\/draft-commission-guidelines-trusted-flaggers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, Draft Commission guidelines on trusted flaggers (29 May 2026)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnmc.es\/prensa\/coordinador-servicios-digitales-20240124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CNMC, designation as Spain&#8217;s Digital Services Coordinator (24 January 2024)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/news\/commission-fines-aliexpress-eu550-million-breaching-digital-services-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, Commission fines AliExpress \u20ac550 million (20 July 2026)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How brand owners can use DSA notice and action and trusted flaggers against counterfeit listings: notice elements, who qualifies as a trusted flagger and a seven-step playbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[90,88,92],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-ip","tag-counterfeiting","tag-customs","tag-dsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}