Who is responsible for unlawful content placed on a platform?

In the hosting regime the platform is not responsible if it had no actual knowledge of the unlawful information, or immediately removed or restricted it upon obtaining knowledge. The author of the source remains responsible for their own content.

Must a platform monitor content?

No. The law prohibits imposing on an intermediary provider an obligation to monitor or to undertake active detection measures. At the request of a competent authority it may, however, be tasked with providing identifying information about a recipient.

What does the caching exception require?

Five conditions: no modification of the information, respect of access conditions, compliance with industry update rules, no hindrance to data-collection technologies, and immediate removal of information removed at its source.

Where does a consumer complain?

On non-performance of duties the recipient may apply to the agency, and this does not deprive them of the right to apply to a court or arbitration or to use mediation.

Platform Liability Management in Tbilisi, Georgia

Platform liability: the intermediary-services frame

An online platform that transmits, stores or hosts information between users is often built on foreign models. In Georgia these relations are governed by the Law on Electronic Commerce, whose chapter on intermediary services defines exactly when a platform is responsible for the information of its users and when it is not. On this page we explain these rules: transmission of information, caching, hosting, the absence of a monitoring obligation and the protection mechanisms for the recipient of services.

Transmission of information

Under the law, in transmitting a recipient's information through a communications network, or in providing access to the network, an intermediary service provider is not responsible for that information if: it did not initiate the transmission; it did not select the recipient of the transmitted information; and it did not select or modify the content of the transmitted information. The exception embraces the automatic, intermediate and temporary storage of information in so far as it occurs for the purpose of the transmission process, and the information is not stored longer than technically necessary for its forwarding.

Caching

For temporary storage in the course of transmission — caching — the platform is not responsible for the stored information or its content if the storage serves the aim of efficient and fast delivery to other recipients and the provider: does not modify the information; does not interfere with the conditions of ensuring access; complies with the rules on updating generally accepted in the industry; does not hinder the lawful use of widely recognised technology for receiving data on the use of information; and immediately deletes the stored information or restricts its accessibility once it learns that it has been removed from the original source or its accessibility restricted, or that a court or competent authority lawfully so requires. The caching exception, in other words, is conditional — it operates only while the five rules of conduct are observed.

Hosting

In storing users' information — hosting — an intermediary provider is not responsible for the stored information if one condition exists: it has no actual knowledge of unlawful activity or information — and in a damages claim, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which the unlawful information becomes apparent; or, upon obtaining actual knowledge of unlawful information, it immediately removes it or restricts its accessibility. The exception does not extend to a case where the recipient acts in the name of the provider or is managed by the provider. In practice this is the frame on which the notice-and-action model rests: the platform is not obliged to discover, but once it knows — immediate removal or restriction of unlawful content becomes mandatory.