AGCOM- Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni – the Italian Communications Authority has been formally designated as the Digital Services Coordinator for Italy by the Legislative Decree No. 123, converted, with amendments, by Law No. 159 of November 13, 2023, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services (DSA), in force since 17 February 2024.

The DSA establishes harmonised rules within the European Union for a safe and transparent online environment, imposing a series of obligations on different categories of providers of intermediary services, including hosting services, online platforms and search engines.

During the first two years of application of the Regulation, AGCOM continued to carry out important activities for the effective implementation of the DSA, consolidating its role and contribution in tackling illegal and harmful content online and safeguarding users' fundamental rights.

Throughout the year, the Italian DSC pursued dialogue with other national relevant authorities, fostering a continuous and constructive cooperation. At EU level, AGCOM actively contributed to the work of the European Board for Digital Services, including through its participation in the Board’s working groups. Furthermore, AGCOM promoted the principles and objectives of the DSA both within international organizations and beyond the EU borders.

The most relevant activities undertaken in 2025 to enforce the provisions of the DSA covered the following areas:

− Handling complaints submitted by users pursuant to art. 53 of the DSA: in 2025, AGCOM adopted the “Procedural regulation for the handling of complaints under Article 53 of the Digital Services Act (DSA)”. AGCOM received approximately 160 complaints directly related adopted ( violations of the DSA, primarily concerning: i) measures taken by the intermediary that appear disproportionate to the rights and legitimate interests of the notifier (Article 14(4) DSA); ii) failure to provide, or inadequate, statements of reasons in cases where account suspension or limitation measures were adopted (Article 17 DSA iii) difficulties in accessing the internal complaint-handling system or in receiving a clear and reasoned communication in the event of a negative outcome of the complaint (Article 20 DSA). All of these complaints involved providers established outside Italy.

Therefore, the complaints were forwarded to the competent DSC, following a preliminary analysis of their content;

− Orders pursuant to Article 9 and Article 10: during 2025, no orders from national administrative or judicial authorities were notified to AGCOM in the context of the application of Articles 9 and 10 of the DSA. However, acting in its capacity as a national relevant authority, AGCOM adopted 2 orders under Article 9 of the DSA and 4 orders under Article 10 of the DSA, and shared them via AGORA with all other DSCs;

− Awarding trusted flagger status: during 2025, AGCOM received sixteen applications for the recognition of trusted flagger status, ten of which were successfully awarded, whilst six were dismissed/rejected/denied for failure to meet the required criteria;

− Certifying out-of-court dispute settlement bodies: AGCOM updated the previous certification of ADR Center Srl granting additional linguistic requirements;

− Cooperating with other DSCs and the Commission in developing the application framework of Article 40 of the DSA on vetted researchers: AGCOM offered its expertise for the definition of a European shared regulatory framework for the application of Article 40 and in order to harmonize the procedures for evaluating researchers' requests among DSCs, in line with the Regulation (EU) 2025/2050 adopted by the European Commission in July 2025. Additionally, AGCOM set up a dedicated web page and a helpdesk to support Italian researchers with accreditation procedures. No data access requests were submitted to (or were received by) AGCOM by Italian researchers in 2025.

Furthermore, AGCOM supported the public communication campaigns launched in 2025 to raise awareness of the tools and safeguards available to users under the DSA while continued a steady exchange of information with trusted flaggers, civil society organizations, and other key stakeholders.

Finally in 2026 AGCOM intends to:

• Completing the mapping of the providers subject to the DSA, building also upon the analyses carried out in 2025 and bringing forward work done within WG1;

• Strengthening national cooperation with national authorities involved in tackling illegal online content, including through formal arrangements (e.g. Memoranda of Understanding) and the possible establishment of a dedicated e-commerce task force to support coordinated enforcement of EU and national rules;

• Strengthening Civil Society Engagement to promote awareness of users' rights and of providers' obligations;

• Deepening structured engagement with Trusted Flaggers and also emphasizing the expertise of Trusted Flaggers, as observatory to monitor the evolution of online illegal activities;

Strengthening the protection of minors. Furthermore, in implementation of Article 28 of the DSA and the related Guidelines, AGCOM will further develop the national implementation framework, with specific reference to the measures and provisions set out therein. Likewise, AGCOM will complete the implementation work relating to the Italian age-verification application (IT Wallet), following its selection, together with five other DSCs, to participate in initiatives aimed at strengthening effective age-verification tools.

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