UK OSA Sections 71 and 72 - Terms of service: acting only in accordance with the terms, and further duties (Category 1, exce…
Include clear terms of service provisions covering prohibited content, enforcement actions, and appeals, and apply them consistently
Where this comes from
Provision: Sections 71 and 72 - Terms of service: acting only in accordance with the terms, and further duties (Category 1, except s 72(1))
Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023
Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, s 72(1) (all regulated user-to-user services); ss 71 and 72(2)-(9) (Category 1 services); s 21(3) (terms-of-service provisions about complaints); s 95 (Category 1 designation)
Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, revised text as displayed on legislation.gov.uk on 2026-09-21 ('up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 21 September 2026'), including the amendments made by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 in force from 29 June 2026 (S.I. 2026/689) and s 66 in force from 7 April 2026 (S.I. 2026/262). The as-enacted text is superseded.
Who it applies to
It applies when all of these are true:
- Service allows user-generated content
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Implementation or documented process meets the reviewed acceptance criteria; identify the tested version and deployment status separately
- Configure defaults from the assessed source and purpose; do not enable data collection or processing merely because this task exists
- Validate behavior for the assessed actors and use cases, including applicable guest or administrator paths
- UI clearly communicates what the feature does to users
- API returns appropriate error codes when feature blocks an action
Questions people ask
- Does UK OSA Sections 71 and 72 - Terms of service: acting only in accordance with… apply to my service?
- It applies when Service allows user-generated content.
- From when does this apply?
- UK OSA Sections 71 and 72 - Terms of service: acting only in accordance with… applies from 10 January 2024. Its current status is: passed, not yet in force.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.