STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
2002 No. 2013
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002
Made - - - - - 30th July 2002
Laid before Parliament 31st July 2002
Coming into force
Regulation 16 23rd October 2002
Remainder 21st August 2002
The Secretary of State, being a Minister designated( a) for the purposes of section 2(2) of the
European Communities Act 1972( b) in relation to information society services, in exercise of
the powers conferred on her by that section, hereby makes the following Regulations:—
Citation and commencement
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive)
Regulations 2002 and except for regulation 16 shall come into force on 21st August 2002.
(2) Regulation 16 shall come into force on 23rd October 2002.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In these Regulations and in the Schedule—
“commercial communication” means a communication, in any form, designed to
promote, directly or indirectly, the goods, services or image of any person pursuing a
commercial, industrial or craft activity or exercising a regulated profession, other
than a communication—
(a) consisting only of information allowing direct access to the activity of that
person including a geographic address, a domain name or an electronic mailaddress; or
(b) relating to the goods, services or image of that person provided that the
communication has been prepared independently of the person making it (andfor this purpose, a communication prepared without ﬁnancial consideration is tobe taken to have been prepared independently unless the contrary is shown);
“the Commission” means the Commission of the European Communities;
“consumer” means any natural person who is acting for purposes other than those of
his trade, business or profession;
“coordinated ﬁeld” means requirements applicable to information society service
providers or information society services, regardless of whether they are of a generalnature or speciﬁcally designed for them, and covers requirements with which theservice provider has to comply in respect of—
a)( S.I. 2001/2555.
b)( 1972 c. 68.
1(a) the taking up of the activity of an information society service, such as
requirements concerning qualiﬁcations, authorisation or notiﬁcation, and
(b) the pursuit of the activity of an information society service, such as requirements
concerning the behaviour of the service provider, requirements regarding the
quality or content of the service including those applicable to advertising and
contracts, or requirements concerning the liability of the service provider,
but does not cover requirements such as those applicable to goods as such, to the
delivery of goods or to services not provided by electronic means;
“the Directive” means Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, inparticular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic
commerce)( a);
“EEA Agreement” means the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at
Oporto on 2 May 1992 as adjusted by the Protocol signed at Brussels on 17 March
1993( b);
“enactment” includes an enactment comprised in Northern Ireland legislation and
comprised in, or an instrument made under, an Act of the Scottish Parliament;
“enforcement action” means any form of enforcement action including, in
particular—
(a) in relation to any legal requirement imposed by or under any enactment, any
action taken with a view to or in connection with imposing any sanction (whether
criminal or otherwise) for failure to observe or comply with it; and
(b) in relation to a permission or authorisation, anything done with a view to
removing or restricting that permission or authorisation;
“enforcement authority” does not include courts but, subject to that, means any
person who is authorised, whether by or under an enactment or otherwise, to take
enforcement action;
“established service provider” means a service provider who is a national of a member
State or a company or ﬁrm as mentioned in Article 48 of the Treaty and who
eﬀectively pursues an economic activity by virtue of which he is a service provider
using a ﬁxed establishment in a member State for an indeﬁnite period, but the
presence and use of the technical means and technologies required to provide the
information society service do not, in themselves, constitute an establishment of theprovider; in cases where it cannot be determined from which of a number of places of
establishment a given service is provided, that service is to be regarded as provided
from the place of establishment where the provider has the centre of his activities
relating to that service; references to a service provider being established or to the
establishment of a service provider shall be construed accordingly;
“information society services” (which is summarised in recital 17 of the Directive as
covering “any service normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, by means of
electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage
of data, and at the individual request of a recipient of a service”) has the meaning setout in Article 2(a) of the Directive, (which refers to Article 1(2) of Directive 98/34/EC
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a
procedure for the provision of information in the ﬁeld of technical standards and
regulations( c), as amended by Directive 98/48/EC of 20 July 1998( d));
“member State” includes a State which is a contracting party to the EEA Agreement;“recipient of the service” means any person who, for professional ends or otherwise,
uses an information society service, in particular for the purposes of seekinginformation or making it accessible;
“regulated profession” means any profession within the meaning of either Article 1(d)
of Council Directive 89/48/EEC of 21 December 1988 on a general system for the
recognition of higher-education diplomas awarded on completion of professional
a)( O.J. L178, 17.7.2000, p.1.
b)( O.J. L1, 3.1.94, p.3 and p.572.
c)( O.J. L204, 21.7.98, p.37.
d)( O.J. L217, 5.8.98, p.18.
2education and training of at least three years’ duration( a) or of Article 1(f) of Council
Directive 92/51/EEC of 18 June 1992 on a second general system for the recognitionof professional education and training to supplement Directive 89/48/EEC( b);
“service provider” means any person providing an information society service;
“the Treaty” means the treaty establishing the European Community.
(2) In regulation 4 and 5, “requirement” means any legal requirement under the law of the
United Kingdom, or any part of it, imposed by or under any enactment or otherwise.
(3) Terms used in the Directive other than those in paragraph (1) above shall have the same
meaning as in the Directive.
Exclusions
3.—(1) Nothing in these Regulations shall apply in respect of—
(a) the ﬁeld of taxation;
(b) questions relating to information society services covered by the Data Protection
Directive( c) and the Telecommunications Data Protection Directive( d) and Directive
2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12th July 2002concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy inthe electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic
communications)( e);
(c) questions relating to agreements or practices governed by cartel law; and
(d) the following activities of information society services—
(i) the activities of a public notary or equivalent professions to the extent that they
involve a direct and speciﬁc connection with the exercise of public authority,
(ii) the representation of a client and defence of his interests before the courts, and
(iii) betting, gaming or lotteries which involve wagering a stake with monetary value.
(2) These Regulations shall not apply in relation to any Act passed on or after the date these
Regulations are made or in exercise of a power to legislate after that date.
(3) In this regulation—
“cartel law” means so much of the law relating to agreements between undertakings,
decisions by associations of undertakings or concerted practices as relates to agreementsto divide the market or ﬁx prices;
“Data Protection Directive” means Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and
of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to theprocessing of personal data and on the free movement of such data; and
“Telecommunications Data Protection Directive” means Directive 97/66/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 concerning the processingof personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector.
Internal market
4.—(1) Subject to paragraph (4) below, any requirement which falls within the coordinated
ﬁeld shall apply to the provision of an information society service by a service provider
established in the United Kingdom irrespective of whether that information society service isprovided in the United Kingdom or another member State.
(2) Subject to paragraph (4) below, an enforcement authority with responsibility in relation
to any requirement in paragraph (1) shall ensure that the provision of an information societyservice by a service provider established in the United Kingdom complies with that requirementirrespective of whether that service is provided in the United Kingdom or another member Stateand any power, remedy or procedure for taking enforcement action shall be available to securecompliance.
a)( O.J. L19, 24.1.89, p.16. Directive as last amended by Directive 2001/19/EC; O.J. L206, 31.7.2001, p.1.
b)( O.J. L209, 24.7.92, p.25. Directive as last amended by Directive 2001/19/EC; O.J. L206, 31.7.2001, p.1.
c)( O.J. L281, 23.11.95, p.31.
d)( O.J. L24, 30.1.98, p.1.
e)( O.J. L201, 31.7.2002, p.37.
3(3) Subject to paragraphs (4), (5) and (6) below, any requirement shall not be applied to the
provision of an information society service by a service provider established in a member Stateother than the United Kingdom for reasons which fall within the coordinated ﬁeld where its
application would restrict the freedom to provide information society services to a person inthe United Kingdom from that member State.
(4) Paragraphs (1), (2) and (3) shall not apply to those ﬁelds in the annex to the Directive set
out in the Schedule.
(5) The reference to any requirements the application of which would restrict the freedom
to provide information society services from another member State in paragraph (3) above doesnot include any requirement maintaining the level of protection for public health and consumerinterests established by Community acts.
(6) To the extent that anything in these Regulations creates any new criminal o ﬀence, it shall
not be punishable with imprisonment for more than two years or punishable on summary
conviction with imprisonment for more than three months or with a ﬁne of more than level 5 on
the standard scale (if not calculated on a daily basis) or with a ﬁne of more than £100 a day( a).
Derogations from Regulation 4
5.—(1) Notwithstanding regulation 4(3), an enforcement authority may take measures,
including applying any requirement which would otherwise not apply by virtue of regulation4(3) in respect of a given information society service, where those measures are necessary forreasons of—
(a) public policy, in particular the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution
of criminal o ﬀences, including the protection of minors and the ﬁght against any
incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality, and violations ofhuman dignity concerning individual persons;
(b) the protection of public health;
(c) public security, including the safeguarding of national security and defence, or
(d) the protection of consumers, including investors,
and proportionate to those objectives.
(2) Notwithstanding regulation 4(3), in any case where an enforcement authority with
responsibility in relation to the requirement in question is not party to the proceedings, a courtmay, on the application of any person or of its own motion, apply any requirement which wouldotherwise not apply by virtue of regulation 4(3) in respect of a given information society service,if the application of that enactment or requirement is necessary for and proportionate to anyof the objectives set out in paragraph (1) above.
(3) Paragraphs (1) and (2) shall only apply where the information society service prejudices
or presents a serious and grave risk of prejudice to an objective in paragraph (1)(a) to (d).
(4) Subject to paragraphs (5) and (6), an enforcement authority shall not take the measures
in paragraph (1) above, unless it—
(a) asks the member State in which the service provider is established to take measures
and the member State does not take such measures or they are inadequate; and
(b) notiﬁes the Commission and the member State in which the service provider is
established of its intention to take such measures.
(5) Paragraph (4) shall not apply to court proceedings, including preliminary proceedings
and acts carried out in the course of a criminal investigation.
(6) If it appears to the enforcement authority that the matter is one of urgency, it may take
the measures under paragraph (1) without ﬁrst asking the member State in which the serviceprovider is established to take measures and notifying the Commission and the member Statein derogation from paragraph (4).
(7) In a case where a measure is taken pursuant to paragraph (6) above, the enforcement
authority shall notify the measures taken to the Commission and to the member Stateconcerned in the shortest possible time thereafter and indicate the reasons for urgency.
(8) In paragraph (2), “court” means any court or tribunal.
a)( The maximum penalty allowed under paragraph 1(1)(d) of Schedule 2 of the European Communities Act 1972 c. 68.
4General information to be provided by a person providing an information society service
6.—(1) A person providing an information society service shall make available to the
recipient of the service and any relevant enforcement authority, in a form and manner whichis easily, directly and permanently accessible, the following information—
(a) the name of the service provider;
(b) the geographic address at which the service provider is established;
(c) the details of the service provider, including his electronic mail address, which make
it possible to contact him rapidly and communicate with him in a direct andeﬀective manner;
(d) where the service provider is registered in a trade or similar register available to the
public, details of the register in which the service provider is entered and hisregistration number, or equivalent means of identiﬁcation in that register;
(e) where the provision of the service is subject to an authorisation scheme, the
particulars of the relevant supervisory authority;
(f) where the service provider exercises a regulated profession—
(i) the details of any professional body or similar institution with which the service
provider is registered;
(ii) his professional title and the member State where that title has been granted;
(iii) a reference to the professional rules applicable to the service provider in the
member State of establishment and the means to access them; and
(g) where the service provider undertakes an activity that is subject to value added tax,
the identiﬁcation number referred to in Article 22(1) of the sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the member Statesrelating to turnover taxes—Common system of value added tax: uniform basis ofassessment( a).
(2) Where a person providing an information society service refers to prices, these shall be
indicated clearly and unambiguously and, in particular, shall indicate whether they areinclusive of tax and delivery costs.
Commercial communications
7. A service provider shall ensure that any commercial communication provided by him
and which constitutes or forms part of an information society service shall—
(a) be clearly identiﬁable as a commercial communication;
(b) clearly identify the person on whose behalf the commercial communication is made;
(c) clearly identify as such any promotional o ﬀer (including any discount, premium or
gift) and ensure that any conditions which must be met to qualify for it are easily
accessible, and presented clearly and unambiguously; and
(d) clearly identify as such any promotional competition or game and ensure that any
conditions for participation are easily accessible and presented clearly andunambiguously.
Unsolicited commercial communications
8. A service provider shall ensure that any unsolicited commercial communication sent by
him by electronic mail is clearly and unambiguously identiﬁable as such as soon as it is received.
Information to be provided where contracts are concluded by electronic means
9.—(1) Unless parties who are not consumers have agreed otherwise, where a contract is to
be concluded by electronic means a service provider shall, prior to an order being placed by therecipient of a service, provide to that recipient in a clear, comprehensible and unambiguousmanner the information set out in (a) to (d) below—
(a) the di ﬀerent technical steps to follow to conclude the contract;
(b) whether or not the concluded contract will be ﬁled by the service provider and whether
it will be accessible;
a)( O.J. L145, 13.6.77, p.1. Directive as last amended by Directive 2002/38/EC; O.J. L128, 15.5.2002, p.41.
5(c) the technical means for identifying and correcting input errors prior to the placing of
the order; and
(d) the languages o ﬀered for the conclusion of the contract.
(2) Unless parties who are not consumers have agreed otherwise, a service provider shall
indicate which relevant codes of conduct he subscribes to and give information on how thosecodes can be consulted electronically.
(3) Where the service provider provides terms and conditions applicable to the contract to
the recipient, the service provider shall make them available to him in a way that allows him tostore and reproduce them.
(4) The requirements of paragraphs (1) and (2) above shall not apply to contracts concluded
exclusively by exchange of electronic mail or by equivalent individual communications.
Other information requirements
10. Regulations 6, 7, 8 and 9(1) have e ﬀect in addition to any other information
requirements in legislation giving e ﬀect to Community law.
Placing of the order
11.—(1) Unless parties who are not consumers have agreed otherwise, where the recipient
of the service places his order through technological means, a service provider shall–
(a) acknowledge receipt of the order to the recipient of the service without undue delay
and by electronic means; and
(b) make available to the recipient of the service appropriate, e ﬀective and accessible
technical means allowing him to identify and correct input errors prior to the placingof the order.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a) above—
(a) the order and the acknowledgement of receipt will be deemed to be received when the
parties to whom they are addressed are able to access them; and
(b) the acknowledgement of receipt may take the form of the provision of the service paid
for where that service is an information society service.
(3) The requirements of paragraph (1) above shall not apply to contracts concluded
exclusively by exchange of electronic mail or by equivalent individual communications.
Meaning of the term “order”
12. Except in relation to regulation 9(1)(c) and regulation 11(1)(b) where “order” shall be
the contractual o ﬀer, “order” may be but need not be the contractual o ﬀer for the purposes of
regulations 9 and 11.
Liability of the service provider
13. The duties imposed by regulations 6, 7, 8, 9(1) and 11(1)(a) shall be enforceable, at the
suit of any recipient of a service, by an action against the service provider for damages forbreach of statutory duty.
Compliance with Regulation 9(3)
14. Where on request a service provider has failed to comply with the requirement in
regulation 9(3), the recipient may seek an order from any court having jurisdiction in relationto the contract requiring that service provider to comply with that requirement.
Right to rescind contract
15. Where a person—
(a) has entered into a contract to which these Regulations apply, and
(b) the service provider has not made available means of allowing him to identify and
correct input errors in compliance with regulation 11(1)(b),
he shall be entitled to rescind the contract unless any court having jurisdiction in relation to the
contract in question orders otherwise on the application of the service provider.
6Amendments to the Stop Now Orders (E.C. Directive) Regulations 2001
16.—(1) The Stop Now Orders (E.C. Directive) Regulations 2001( a) are amended as
follows.
(2) In regulation 2(3), at the end there shall be added—
“(k) regulations 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 of the Electronic Commerce (E.C. Directive)
Regulations 2002.”.
(3) In Schedule 1, at the end there shall be added—
“11. Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8th
June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particularelectronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on ElectronicCommerce).”( b).
Mere conduit
17.— (1) Where an information society service is provided which consists of the transmission
in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service or theprovision of access to a communication network, the service provider (if he otherwise would)shall not be liable for damages or for any other pecuniary remedy or for any criminal sanctionas a result of that transmission where the service provider—
(a) did not initiate the transmission;
(b) did not select the receiver of the transmission; and
(c) did not select or modify the information contained in the transmission.
(2) The acts of transmission and of provision of access referred to in paragraph (1) include
the automatic, intermediate and transient storage of the information transmitted where:
(a) this takes place for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission in the
communication network, and
(b) the information is not stored for any period longer than is reasonably necessary for
the transmission.
Caching
18. Where an information society service is provided which consists of the transmission in
a communication network 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 transmission where—
(a) the information is the subject of automatic, intermediate and temporary storage
where that storage is for the sole purpose of making more e ﬃcient onward
transmission of the information to other recipients of the service upon their
request, and
(b) the service provider—
(i) does not modify the information;
(ii) complies with conditions on access to the information;
(iii) complies with any rules regarding the updating of the information, speciﬁed in a
manner widely recognised and used by industry;
(iv) does not interfere with the lawful use of technology, widely recognised and used
by industry, to obtain data on the use of the information; and
(v) acts expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the information he has stored
upon obtaining actual knowledge of the fact that the information at the initial
source of the transmission has been removed from the network, or access to it
has been disabled, or that a court or an administrative authority has ordered suchremoval or disablement.
a)( S.I. 2001/1422.
b)( O.J. L178, 17.7.00, p.1.
7Hosting
19. 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 sanctionas 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 whichit would have been apparent to the service provider that the activity orinformation 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 the control of the
service provider.
Protection of rights
20.—(1) Nothing in regulations 17, 18 and 19 shall—
(a) prevent a person agreeing di ﬀerent contractual terms; or
(b) aﬀect the rights of any party to apply to a court for relief to prevent or stop
infringement of any rights.
(2) Any power of an administrative authority to prevent or stop infringement of any rights
shall continue to apply notwithstanding regulations 17, 18 and 19.
Defence in Criminal Proceedings: burden of proof
21.—(1) This regulation applies where a service provider charged with an o ﬀence in criminal
proceedings arising out of any transmission, provision of access or storage falling withinregulation 17, 18 or 19 relies on a defence under any of regulations 17, 18 and 19.
(2) Where evidence is adduced which is su ﬃcient to raise an issue with respect to that
defence, the court or jury shall assume that the defence is satisﬁed unless the prosecution proves
beyond reasonable doubt that it is not.
Notice for the purposes of actual knowledge
22. In determining whether a service provider has actual knowledge for the purposes of
regulations 18(b)(v) and 19(a)(i), a court shall take into account all matters which appear to itin the particular circumstances to be relevant and, among other things, shall have regard to—
(a) whether a service provider has received a notice through a means of contact made
available in accordance with regulation 6(1)(c), and
(b) the extent to which any notice includes—
(i) the full name and address of the sender of the notice;
(ii) details of the location of the information in question; and
(iii) details of the unlawful nature of the activity or information in question.
Alan Johnson,
Minister of State for Employment Relations Industry and the Regions,
Department of Trade and Industry 30th July 2002
8SCHEDULE Regulation 4(4)
1. Copyright, neighbouring rights, rights referred to in Directive 87/54/EEC( a) and Directive 96/9/
EC(b) and industrial property rights.
2. The freedom of the parties to a contract to choose the applicable law.
3. Contractual obligations concerning consumer contracts.
4. Formal validity of contracts creating or transferring rights in real estate where such contracts are
subject to mandatory formal requirements of the law of the member State where the real estate is situated.
5. The permissibility of unsolicited commercial communications by electronic mail.
a)( Council Directive 87/54/EEC of 16 December 1986 on the legal protection of topographies of semiconductor products;
O.J. L24, 27.1.87, p.36.
b)( Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of
databases; O.J. L77, 27.3.96, p.20.
9EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the regulations)
These Regulations implement Articles 3, 5, 6, 7(1), 10 to 14, 18(2) and 20 of Directive 2000/31/
EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects ofinformation society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market(Directive on electronic commerce)( a) (“the Directive”) except in those areas covered by the
measures referred to in the paragraph below.
These Regulations should be read with the Electronic Commerce Directive (Financial
Services and Markets) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/1775), the Financial Services and MarketsAct 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/1776), The
Electronic Commerce Directive (Financial Services and Markets) (Amendment) Regulations
2002 (S.I. 2002/2015) and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion)
(Amendment) (Electronic Commerce Directive) Order 2002 (which is expected to be madeshortly and to come into force on 21st August 2002). They make parallel provisions in thoseareas subject to regulation by the Financial Services Authority under the Financial Services andMarkets Act 2000.
Regulation 3(1) sets out those matters excluded from the scope of the Regulations.
Regulation 3(2) provides that the Regulations do not have prospective e ﬀect.
Regulation 4(1) makes requirements within the coordinated ﬁeld apply to the provision of
an information society service by a service provider established in the United Kingdomirrespective of whether that service is provided in the United Kingdom or in another memberState. (Regulation 2(1) deﬁnes the coordinated ﬁeld as requirements relating to the taking upand pursuit of the activity of an information society service and deﬁnes an information societyservice with reference to the deﬁnition in Article 2(a) of the Directive.) Enforcement authoritiesare required under regulation 4(2) to secure compliance with those requirements. Conversely,regulation 4(3) provides that requirements within the coordinated ﬁeld are not to be applied toinformation society services provided by a service provider established in another member Statefor reasons which fall within the coordinated ﬁeld where their application would restrict thefreedom to provide information society services. By virtue of regulation 4(4), these provisionsdo not apply to those ﬁelds set out in the Schedule.
Regulation 5 allows an enforcement authority or, where no enforcement authority is a party
to the proceedings, a court to take measures exceptionally in respect of a given informationsociety service in derogation from regulation 4(3), where these are necessary for reasons ofpublic policy, public health, public security, and the protection of consumers and proportionateto those objectives.
Regulation 6 imposes a duty on a person providing an information society service to make
available to the recipient of that service certain information.
Regulation 7 imposes a duty on a service provider to ensure that any commercial
communications constituting or forming part of an information society service which heprovides complies with certain requirements.
Regulation 8 imposes a duty on a service provider to ensure that any unsolicited commercial
communication sent by him is clearly and unambiguously identiﬁable as such as soon as it isreceived.
Regulation 9 imposes a duty on a service provider to provide certain information where
contracts are concluded by electronic means unless parties who are not consumers have agreed
otherwise.
Regulation 10 provides that regulations 6 to 9(1) have e ﬀect in addition to any other
information requirements in Community law. These include those contained in the ConsumerProtection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (S.I.2000/2334).
a)( O.J. L178, 17.7.2000, p.1.
10Regulation 11 imposes requirements on the service provider in relation to the placing of an
order unless parties who are not consumers have agreed otherwise.
Regulations 13 to15 set out the consequences of a failure to comply with regulations 6 to 9
and 11.
Regulation 16 amends the Stop Now Orders (E.C. Directive) Regulations 2001 so that an
application can be made under those Regulations for a court order to stop an infringement of
the Directive which harms the collective interests of consumers. For this purpose, regulations
6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 of these Regulations are added to the list of the UK legislation implementingthe Directives to which the 2001 Regulations apply.
Regulations 17 to 19 create a defence for intermediary service providers from any liability
incurred from the activities of mere conduits, caching and hosting in the circumstances set outin those regulations. Regulation 20 provides that regulations 17 to 19 do not preclude theagreement of di ﬀerent contractual terms or a ﬀect the rights of any party to apply to a court for
relief or the power of any administrative authority to prevent or stop the infringement of anyrights. Regulation 21 makes provision in relation to the burden of proof in criminal proceedingsarising out of the circumstances in regulations 17 to 19. Regulation 22 makes provision inrelation to matters which a court should have regard to when determining whether a serviceprovider has actual knowledge for the purposes of regulations 18(b)(v) and 19(a)(i).
A transposition note setting out how the main elements of the Directive are transposed into
law and a regulatory impact assessment have been placed in the libraries of both Houses ofParliament. Copies are also available from the International Communications Unit,Department of Trade and Industry, Bay 206, 151 Buckingham Palace Road, LondonSW1W 9SS.
11STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
2002 No. 2013
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002
£2.50
?Crown copyright 2002
Printed and published in the UK by The Stationery O ﬃce Limited
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