Source: https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/09/10/europe-really-moving-away-from-protecting-platforms-and-internet-intermediaries/id=101138/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ipwatchdog+%28IPWatchdog.com%29
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 19:59:19+00:00

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Is Europe moving from protecting platforms & internet intermediaries?
It is worth giving a brief recap of the current regime in Europe. Articles 12-14 of the E-commerce Directive (ECD) contain protection from liability for those acting as “mere conduits”, and those who are caching, or performing hosting services. The most relevant for the present debate is the Article 14 hosting defense. This shields information society service providers (such as ISPs, platforms, social media, etc) from liability for content stored at the request of a user of the service as long as they do not have actual knowledge of the illegal activity or information and are not aware of facts and circumstances from which the illegal activity or information is apparent. If the provider obtains such knowledge or awareness they are still protected as long as they act “expeditiously” to remove or disable access to the information (notice and take down).
The hosting defence covers not just technical storage providers, but can also apply to sophisticated platforms doing more than mere storage.
The Supreme Court has therefore asked the CJEU whether Article 15 ECD precludes an order requiring a hosting provider found to have failed to expeditiously remove illegal information not only to remove the specific information but also other information that is not identical in wording, but similar in meaning; and whether that differs once the host provider has actual knowledge of the information. Intermediaries will be watching for the next development in this case for two reasons. First, because of the potential impact on the permissible width of injunctions that could be ordered against them in terms of the nature of the content which is the subject matter of the order. But also second, because the Court has in addition referred questions about the permissible territorial scope of such an order (in the case at hand, should it be global or limited to Austria).
In the Google France and L’Oreal v eBay cases, the Court ruled that playing an active role of such a kind as to give a service provider knowledge of, or control over the content in question would take a service provider outside the limitation of liability. However, some commentators have drawn attention to wording in the SNB-React judgment which is arguably not consistent with these earlier judgments. In particular, the CJEU rather inaccurately paraphrased the ‘active role’ from L’Oreal as “allowing” users to optimise online sales activity, rather than “providing assistance” as it was put in L’Oreal. Further, the ambiguous nature of some of the CJEU’s wording in its answer to the second question referred has led some to question if the CJEU was deliberately decoupling ‘knowledge /control’ from ‘active role’ (albeit, the CJEU was still requiring both before the exemption from liability would be disapplied). Given this would be a departure from previous rulings, and that the CJEU chose not to have the benefit of an Advocate General’s Opinion in this case, it is perhaps more likely to be merely the result of some loose language.
Many months later than originally envisaged, the European Parliament held a vote on July 5th 2018 regarding the next steps for the proposed Directive. In a strategically important move, the Parliament voted against providing a mandate for three-way (“trilogue”) negotiations to begin on the draft Directive, on the basis of the Report adopted by the lead Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) in June 2018. As a result, the Parliament will reconsider the JURI Report and amendments at the next plenary session (September 10th – 13th 2018) and Members of Parliament will also have the possibility to table new amendments.
This means that the beginning of the trilogue negotiations will be delayed, making it less likely that consensus will be reached on the draft Directive before the end of the mandate of the current Juncker Commission, which ends in 2019. This delay in the decision-making process means that the discussions on copyright may be even more influenced by the forthcoming European Parliament elections in May 2019. It may also mean that crucial ‘trilogue’ negotiations could take place in a post-Brexit scenario.
Watch this space for an update after the September session.
The Communication provided guidance and recognised it did not change the legal framework or contain legally binding rules. However, it was described as a first step.
The Communication set up the possibility of legislative action in this area. Consistent with this, the intention is to monitor the Recommendation within three months as regards terrorist content and after six months as regards other illegal content. It has been reported that a proposal for legislation focussing on terror content could be coming out of the Commission shortly.
This time last year, the combination of the Commission’s September 2017 Communication and the proposed Article 13 of the draft Copyright Directive led some to conclude that Europe was indeed moving away from protecting internet intermediaries. Although the Communication has been backed up by the March 2018 Commission Recommendation (with its focus on terrorist content), whether Article 13 is ever enacted and in what form is still to be decided. Meanwhile, we await answers from the CJEU regarding the permissible subject-matter breadth and territorial width of injunctions made against intermediaries, and will keep an eye out for legislative action from the Commission following from its Recommendation earlier this year.

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