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The Supreme Court reviewed the application of the exemptions from liability established in the e-commerce Directive, as implemented by Article 20 of Law of March, 11 2003 related to certain aspects of services of the information society. The exemptions would cover over only cases where the activity of the information society service provider is (i) limited to the technical process of operating and giving access to a communication network (ii) over which information made available by third parties is transmitted or temporarily stored, (iii) for the sole purpose of making the transmission more efficient. (iv) This activity must be of a mere technical, automatic and passive nature, which implies that the information society service provider has neither knowledge of nor control over the information which is transmitted or...

The Belgian Supreme Court upheld an appelate decision holding that it is not possible for rightsholders or any other interested party to obtain from an hosting provider certain information to identify alleged copyright infringers on the basis of Article 21, § 2 of the Law of March 11, 2003 on certain services of the information society. This provision only allows judicial or administrative authorities to obtain these information (name of the client, his geographical situation, etc.) from a hosting provider in order to look for possible violation of the Law.

(1) Reversing the decision of the Anvers Court of Appeal of February, 14 2013, ordering the blockage of all the websites redirecting to "thepiratebay.org," and sending the case back to the Brussels Court of Appeal. (2) The Belgian Supreme Court confirmed that the public prosecutor did not violate the law by ordering the ISPs to block all websites redirecting to thepiratebay.org. The Court confirmed that far-reaching blocking orders against all national Internet service providers are lawful. According to the Supreme Court, a magistrate is entitled to order, (i) in a single injunction, (ii) all national Internet service providers to (iii) block access to IP rights-infringing content (iv) which is hosted by a server, linked to a specific main domain name, (v) by employing all possible technical means at their disposal or...

This April 1999 Protocol of cooperation between ISPA (the Belgian ISP Association), the police and judicial authorities was agreed upon to improve the cooperation between Belgian ISPs and judicial authorities. The Protocol put in place a Central Judicial Contact Point, which is now eCops, available at www.ecops.be). eCops is an online complaint department to which Internet users, as well as the ISPs, can report crimes (including copyright infringments) committed through the Internet.

This is the Code of conduct set up by ISPA, the Belgian Association of Internet service providers. This Code of conduct is a example of self-regulation. It is mandatory for all the members of ISPA. It binds the members to a set of obligations, including the obligation for all the Belgian ISPs to collaborate adequately with the judicial authorities in their fight against online crimes, including copyright infringments, also through the Central Judicial Contact Point or eCops (see below).

including Article 87 implementing Article 8.2 of the Infosoc Directive of 2001 which states that “Member States shall ensure that rightholders are in a position to apply for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe a copyright or related right.” Note that this Law has been now codfied and inserted in the Book XI of the Belgian Commercial Law codification, which will enter into force on January, 1 2015