Free DSA Statement of Reasons template (text download)

Published Sep 29, 2026 · Last reviewed Sep 29, 2026 · by Agent Exchange

The Article 17 statement you send to a user when you remove, restrict, demote or suspend their content or account: the decision, the facts relied on, whether it followed a notice, the legal or contractual ground, and the redress. Bracketed text marks what you fill in. Download the file or copy it; the generator version fills the brackets for you.

Statement of reasons under Article 17 of the EU Digital Services Act
From: [Site name] ([https://example.com]) · Contact: [contact email]
Reference: [reference] · Date: [date]

To the account holder,

1. Decision. We have taken the following action on content or an account you provided: [action taken]. Territorial scope: [all users / EU only]. Duration: [permanent / until DATE].

2. Content concerned. [Exact location (URL) and a short description of the content.]

3. Facts and circumstances relied on. [What the content shows or says and what we found.] This decision was taken following a notice submitted under Article 16. [Automated means were / were not] used to detect or identify the content, and the decision [was / was not] taken by automated means.

4. Ground. [legal ground, or clause of the terms and conditions]. [Explain why the content is illegal on that legal ground, or why it is incompatible with that clause of our terms and conditions.]

5. Redress. You may (a) complain to us at [contact email]; where we operate an internal complaint-handling system under Article 20, you can use it for six months from this decision and a complaint is reviewed by a person, not only by automated means; (b) refer the dispute to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body under Article 21; (c) bring the matter before a court.

[Site name]

What a DSA Statement of Reasons must contain

The restriction imposed: removal, disabling access, demotion or restricted visibility, suspension or termination of payments, or suspension or termination of the account, with its territorial scope and duration where relevant (Article 17(3)(a)).
The facts and circumstances relied on, including whether the decision followed an Article 16 notice or your own-initiative investigation (Article 17(3)(b)).
Whether automated means were used to detect the content or to take the decision (Article 17(3)(c)).
For illegal content, the legal ground and why the content is illegal on it; for a terms breach, the contractual ground and why the content is incompatible with it (Article 17(3)(d) and (e)).
Clear, user-friendly information on redress: internal complaint handling (Article 20, for online platforms above the micro and small enterprise threshold), certified out-of-court dispute settlement (Article 21) and the courts (Article 17(3)(f)).
Send it at the latest when the restriction is imposed, whenever you hold the user's contact details; not required for deceptive high-volume commercial content (Article 17(2)). Online platforms also submit each statement to the Commission's DSA Transparency Database (Article 24(5)).

Primary sources: Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Digital Services Act, Articles 16 and 17 (EUR-Lex). Informational, not legal advice.

The document is the notice; the desk is the process. The Notice & Action Desk hosts the request form this document points to: ticket numbers, the act without undue delay deadline clock, a status page for the requester, and an exportable log for you. Base desk free during launch. Create the notice & action desk

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