1. This Directive applies to public or private entities of a type referred to in Annex I or II which qualify as medium-sized enterprises under Article 2 of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361/EC, or exceed the ceilings for medium-sized enterprises provided for in paragraph 1 of that Article, and which provide their services or carry out their activities within the Union.

Article 3(4) of the Annex to that Recommendation shall not apply for the purposes of this Directive.

2. Regardless of their size, this Directive also applies to entities of a type referred to in Annex I or II, where:

(a) services are provided by:

(i) providers of public electronic communications networks or of publicly available electronic communications services;

(ii) trust service providers;

(iii) top-level domain name registries and domain name system service providers;

(b) the entity is the sole provider in a Member State of a service which is essential for the maintenance of critical societal or economic activities;