ISPs On Alert Following Italian Decision To Prosecute Three Google Executives

Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") and other hosting platforms or internet intermediaries may wish to take note of a decision which was handed down last Wednesday in an Italian court. Three Google executives were found personally liable for allowing the posting of a video clip on Google's video service, which showed an autistic boy being bullied. The decision may have significant implications on the need for ISPs to review their 'notice and take-down' procedures, having been made aware of unsuitable or illegal content on their website.

Under EU law, ISPs are able to benefit from the 'hosting' exemption (as set out in the E-Commerce Directive), where defamatory or illegal content is posted on their site without their actual knowledge, or where, having been made aware of such content, they act 'expeditiously' to remove it. In practice, this often relates to defamatory content.