A marketplace combines two roles: it is a provider of information society services — a conduit and a host of information — and at the same time an organiser of trade that displays third-party offers and receives orders. It is precisely the first, intermediary role that forms the legal core defined by the Law of Georgia on Electronic Commerce. On this page we explain the platform’s status and the boundaries of its liability under the intermediary-service norms; the questions of reporting-obligor status are devoted to a separate page, and the consumer regime of distance contracts is likewise a topic of its own.
The Platform’s Status — Intermediary Service Provider
Article 2 defines the concepts: an information society service is a service provided remotely, for remuneration, by electronic means at the individual request of the recipient; an intermediary service covers three specific types — mere conduit, caching and hosting. A marketplace falls squarely into the last category: it stores information on a server and ensures its availability.
The same article defines the service provider — a natural or legal person providing information society services — and two categories of recipients: those using the service for professional purposes and natural persons acting outside their trade. Article 3 adds the licensing freedom: the provision of information society services is not subject to licensing, permits or authorisation — the sole exception being activities brought under a licensing regime by other legislation.
The Information Duties
Article 4 names the foundation of platform transparency: the provider must make permanently and easily accessible information on its business name and legal form, address, contact details, registry identification number and, where applicable, licence data. Prices must be indicated clearly and include all costs — delivery and taxes.
Article 5 governs commercial communications: advertising must be clearly identifiable, the sender unambiguously ascertainable, and the conditions of discounts and offers easily accessible and comprehensible. For platform advertising this means the commercial character of promoted channels must be recognisable without error.
Liability Exemption — the Conduit Regime
Article 11 governs mere conduit: in transmitting a recipient’s information through a communications network, or providing access to it, the intermediary provider is not responsible for the information where it did not initiate the transmission, did not select the recipient, and did not select or modify the content. Intermediate and temporary storage necessary for the transmission does not change the regime.
Hosting — the Platform’s Principal Safe Harbour
Article 13 establishes the hosting regime: when storing a recipient’s information, the intermediary provider is not responsible for it where it has no factual knowledge of unlawful activity or information — or, in a claim for damages, no awareness of facts from which the unlawfulness is apparent — or where, upon obtaining such knowledge, it immediately removes the information or disables access to it. This is the balance that matters to a platform: ignorance exempts, knowledge obliges.
An important exception: the exemption does not apply where the recipient of the intermediary service acts in the provider’s name or is managed by the provider — a platform that itself creates or controls the seller’s content loses the safe harbour.
No Duty to Monitor
Article 14 gives the counter-guarantee: it is prohibited to impose on an intermediary provider a duty to monitor the information it transmits or stores, or a duty to carry out active measures to detect unlawful acts. A platform is not obliged to hunt for unlawful content itself; but upon a request of a court or authorised authority it may be charged with identifying the recipient with whom it has a storage agreement.
Article 15 arms consumer protection: a complainant — a person applying to the agency about an infringement of a recipient’s rights — may be any interested person. The agency is the public-law legal entity for competition and consumer protection, and applying to it does not diminish the consumer’s right to go to court, arbitration or mediation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the questions platforms ask most often about the boundaries of the intermediary role, answered from the norms of the Law on Electronic Commerce.
Must a platform control sellers’ content?
No. A monitoring duty is excluded; liability arises only from factual knowledge of unlawfulness — and with knowledge the platform must immediately remove the information or restrict access.
When does a platform lose the exemption?
When it initiates the transmission, selects the recipient or modifies the content, or where the recipient acts in its name or is managed by it.
Does a marketplace need a licence?
As an information society service — no; licence freedom is the general rule, the exception being activities under a sectoral licensing regime.
Where does a consumer complain?
To the agency — the public-law entity for competition and consumer protection; this does not limit court, arbitration or mediation rights.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The lawyers of Legal.ge assist marketplaces across the full architecture of the intermediary role: we structure the provider-information and commercial-communication blocks, draft seller agreements with content-monitoring rules, design notice-and-takedown procedures and defend the platform in disputes before the agency and the courts. Contact us — and the boundaries of your platform’s liability will become predictable.