Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006) Regulations 2007 and shall come into force on 21st June 2007.

Interpretation

2. —(1) In these Regulations—

“ the Act ” means the Terrorism Act 2006 ;

“ article ” has the meaning given in section 20(2) of the Act;

“ the Directive ” means 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 particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic commerce) ;

“information society services”—

“ recipient of the service ” means any person who, for professional ends or otherwise, uses an information society service, in particular for the purposes of seeking information or making it accessible;

“ record ” has the meaning given in section 20(2) of the Act;

“relevant offence” is an offence under section 1 or 2 of the Act;

“ service provider ” means a person providing an information society service;

“ statement ” is to be construed in accordance with section 20(6) of the Act.

(2) For the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a service provider is established in a particular EEA state if he effectively pursues an economic activity using a fixed establishment in that EEA state for an indefinite period and he is a national of an EEA state or a company or firm as mentioned in Article 54 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ;

(b) the presence or use in a particular place of equipment or other technical means of providing an information society service does not, of itself, constitute the establishment of a service provider;

(c) where it cannot be determined from which of a number of establishments a given information society service is provided, that service is to be regarded as provided from the establishment where the service provider has the centre of his activities relating to the service,

and references to a person being established in any place must be construed accordingly.

Internal market: UK service providers

3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Internal market: non-UK service providers

4. —(1) Proceedings for a relevant offence shall not be instituted against a non-UK service provider unless the derogation condition is satisfied.

(2) A notice under section 3(3) of the Act shall not be given to a non-UK service provider unless the derogation and cooperation conditions are satisfied.

(3) The derogation condition is that the step mentioned in paragraph (1) or (2) (as the case may be)—

(a) is necessary to pursue any of the public interest objectives;

(b) relates to an information society service that prejudices that objective or presents a serious and grave risk of prejudice to it; and

(c) is proportionate to that objective.

(4) The public interest objectives are—

(a) public policy, in particular the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of a relevant offence;

(b) public security, including the safeguarding of national security and defence.

(5) The cooperation condition is that—

(a) a constable has requested the EEA state in which the service provider is established to take appropriate measures and the EEA state has failed to do so; ...

(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(6) The requirement in paragraph (2) to satisfy the cooperation condition does not apply if—

(a) it appears to a constable that the step mentioned in paragraph (2) should be taken as a matter of urgency; ...

(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(7) Appropriate measures are measures which appear to the constable to have equivalent effect under the law of the EEA state to the giving of a notice under section 3(3) of the Act.

(8) In this regulation—

(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(b) “ non-UK service provider ” means a service provider who is established in an EEA state ....

Exception for mere conduits

5. —(1) A service provider is not capable of being guilty of a relevant offence in respect of anything done in the course of providing so much of an information society service as consists in—

(a) the provision of access to a communication network; or

(b) the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service,

if the transmission condition is satisfied.

(2) The transmission condition is that the service provider does not—

(a) initiate the transmission;

(b) select the recipient of the transmission; or

(c) select or modify the information contained in the transmission.

(3) Paragraph (1)(b) does not apply if the information is information to which regulation 6 applies.

(4) For the purposes of this regulation, the provision of access to a communication network and the transmission of information in the network includes the automatic, intermediate and transient storage of information for the purpose of carrying out the transmission in the network.

(5) Paragraph (4) does not apply if the information is stored for longer than is reasonably necessary for the transmission.

Exception for caching

6. —(1) This regulation applies to information which—

(a) is provided by a recipient of the service; and

(b) is the subject of automatic, intermediate and temporary storage which is solely for the purpose of making the onward transmission of the information to other recipients of the service at their request more efficient.

(2) A service provider is not capable of being guilty of a relevant offence in respect of anything done in the course of providing so much of an information society service as consists in the transmission in a communication network of information to which this regulation applies if—

(a) the service provider does not modify the information;

(b) he complies with any conditions attached to having access to the information; and

(c) in a case to which paragraph (3) applies, the service provider expeditiously removes the information or disables access to it.

(3) This paragraph applies if the service provider obtains actual knowledge that—

(a) the information at the initial source of the transmission has been removed from the network;

(b) access to such information has been disabled; or

(c) a court or administrative authority has ordered the removal from the network of, or the disablement of access to, such information.

Exception for hosting

7. —(1) A service provider is not capable of being guilty of a relevant offence in respect of anything done in the course of providing so much of an information society service as consists in the storage of information provided by a recipient of the service if—

(a) the service provider did not know when the information was provided that it was unlawfully terrorism-related; or

(b) upon obtaining actual knowledge that the information was unlawfully terrorism-related, the service provider expeditiously removed the information or disabled access to it.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), information is unlawfully terrorism-related if it is constituted by a statement, or contained in an article or record, which is unlawfully terrorism-related by virtue of section 3(7) of the Act.

(3) Paragraph (1) does not apply if the recipient of the service is acting under the authority or control of the service provider.