---
title: "Recital 16"
url: "https://prighter.com/resources/laws/e-evidence-directive/recitals/recital-16"
type: "recital"
date: "2026-10-19T19:29:12.909Z"
---

# Recital 16

Member States should ensure that service providers established or offering services on their territory provide their designated establishments and legal representatives with the necessary powers and resources to comply with decisions and orders falling within the scope of this Directive, received from any Member State. Member States should also verify that the designated establishments or legal representatives residing on their territory have received from the service providers the necessary powers and resources to comply with decisions and orders falling within the scope of this Directive, received from any Member State, and that they cooperate with the competent authorities when receiving such decisions and orders, in accordance with the applicable legal framework. The absence of such measures or shortcomings in those measures should not serve as grounds to justify non-compliance with decisions or orders falling within the scope of this Directive.

In addition, service providers should not be able to justify their non-compliance with obligations deriving from the applicable legal framework upon the receipt of decisions or orders falling within the scope of this Directive on the grounds of the lack of, or of ineffective, internal procedures, as they are responsible for providing the necessary resources and powers to guarantee compliance with such decisions and orders. Designated establishments or legal representatives should also not be able to justify such non-compliance by claiming, for example, that they are not empowered to deliver data. To that end, Member States should ensure that both the designated establishment or the legal representative and the service provider can be held jointly and severally liable for non-compliance with obligations deriving from the applicable legal framework upon the receipt of decisions and orders falling within the scope of this Directive, so that each of them can be subject to penalties for non-compliance by any of them. In particular, it should not be possible for the service provider or the designated establishment, or the legal representative where applicable, to use the lack of appropriate internal procedures between the service provider and the designated establishment or the legal representative as a justification for non-compliance with those obligations. Joint and several liability should not apply for actions or omissions of either the service provider or the designated establishment, or the legal representative where applicable, which constitute a criminal offence in the Member State applying the penalties.

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