Defence against Defamation under the E-Commerce Regulations

2 April 2010

Defence against Defamation under the E-Commerce Regulations

Regulation 19 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2013) (E-Commerce Regulations) gives a defence to liability for unlawful activity or information to those who host sites containing user-generated content, provided certain conditions are satisfied. The Regulation states:

"Where an information society service is provided which consists of the storage of information provided by a recipient of the service, the service provider (if he otherwise would) shall not be liable for damages or for any other pecuniary remedy or for any criminal sanction as a result of that storage where:

(a) The service provider:

(i) does not have actual knowledge of unlawful activity or information and, where a claim for damages is made, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which it would have been apparent to the service provider that the activity or information was unlawful; or

(ii) upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the information; and

(b) The recipient of the service was not acting under the authority or control of the service provider."

Izaz Ali (Izaz.Ali@lawdit.co.uk) Izaz is a commercial lawyer who specialises in information technology law and intellectual property law with an emphasis on IT, escrow, online and off-line contracts, and the buying and selling of online businesses.