Statutory Instruments
2007 No. 1550
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM
The Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006) Regulations 2007
Made
23rd May 2007
Laid before Parliament
31st May 2007
Coming into force
21st June 2007
M1The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 .
M2The Secretary of State has been designated for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 in relation to information society services .
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—
M3 “ the Act ” means the Terrorism Act 2006 ;
“ article ” has the meaning given in section 20(2) of the Act;
M4 “ 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”—
M5 has the meaning given 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 22nd June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations ); and
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”;
“ 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.
F1(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Internal market: UK service providers
F23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Internal market: non-UK service providers
F34. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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.
Margaret Hodge
Minister of State for Industry and the Regions
Department of Trade and Industry