Internet & Online Safety · Czechia
Online safety & content laws in Czechia (2026)
Czechia shaded by its internet & online safety status
Czechia is bound by the EU Digital Services Act as directly applicable EU law, and the Czech Telecommunications Office (CTU) has been formally designated as the national Digital Services Coordinator. However, Czechia has failed to empower the CTU with the investigative and enforcement powers required under DSA Articles 51–52, and has not enacted national penalty rules, prompting the European Commission to refer Czechia to the Court of Justice of the EU in April 2026. The national implementing Digital Economy Act, which would remedy these gaps and also partially transpose the Data Governance Act, passed its second reading in the Chamber of Deputies in March 2025 but was not yet in force as of May 2026.
Key points
EU Regulation 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) has applied directly in Czechia since 17 February 2024 for all in-scope intermediary services. CTU mapped 2,659 intermediary service providers in Czech Republic during its first year of DSA supervisory activity.
The Czech Telecommunications Office was designated as Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) for all DSA national supervision tasks; the Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ) has a co-supervisory role on personal data matters. However, the CTU currently lacks the statutory enforcement and investigative powers Articles 51–52 require member states to grant their DSC.
Following a formal notice (April 2024) and reasoned opinion (October 2024), the European Commission referred Czechia to the Court of Justice of the EU in April 2026 (Case INFR(2024)2039) for failing to fully empower the DSC and failing to establish national penalty rules for DSA infringements, as required since 3 January 2025.
The Czech government approved a Draft Digital Economy Act in November 2025 (Bill 776) to transpose DSA national implementation requirements (DSC powers, platform liability, penalty rules up to CZK 10 million or 6% of global turnover) and parts of the Data Governance Act. It passed second reading in the Chamber of Deputies on 13 March 2025 but had not been enacted as of May 2026.
Under the DSA, online platform operators must implement technical and organisational measures minimising minors' exposure to inappropriate content; age verification obligations flow from EU-level DSA requirements rather than a separate Czech national law. The EU Age Verification Blueprint (published July 2025, feature-ready April 2026) is the planned technical mechanism, with member-state roll-out targeted by end-2026.
The DSA's notice-and-action regime — 'what is illegal offline is illegal online' — applies directly. Czech intermediary service providers must respond to substantiated illegal-content notices and take appropriate action; very large online platforms (VLOPs) face additional systemic-risk obligations enforced directly by the European Commission. The pending national Act will codify enforcement procedures domestically.
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