Higher Court in Ljubljana, VSL sodba I Cp 3037/2011

Document type
Court Decision
Country
(1) The Court upheld a decision to impose joint and several liability on a blog portal operator, who was acting as a host provider, despite the fact that there was no editorial control over the blog posts and the identity of the primary defendant, a well known blogger, was well known.
(2) The court held that hosting providers are not liable for the information they transmit or store on the request of their users if they are not aware of facts or circumstances from which the illegality is apparent or if they expeditiously remove or block access to such information once they are aware of their unlawful nature. If the provider does not act accordingly, they may be held liable for the information that they store on the request of their users.
(3) The Court concluded that the provider lost his safe harbor privileges at the moment when the plaintiff informed him about the defamatory statements posted on the primary defendant’s blog. Since the Court did not provide any other legal basis for liability, it seems that losing the safe harbor defense lead to the establishment of liability.
Country
Year
2011
Topic, claim, or defense
Defamation or Personality Rights
Document type
Court Decision
Issuing entity
Appellate Domestic Court
Type of service provider
Host (Including Social Networks)
Issues addressed
Trigger for OSP obligations
OSP obligation considered
Block or Remove
Type of law
Civil
General effect on immunity
Weakens Immunity
General intermediary liability model
Takedown/Act Upon Knowledge (Includes Notice and Takedown)