Editorial for the European Data Protection Law Review 2015_02
European Data Protection Law Review (2015)
6 Pages Posted: 24 Aug 2018
Date Written: April 14, 2015
Abstract
With the recent Google v. Spain decision by the European Court of Justice and the Delfi v. Estonia case before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the position of internet intermediaries is at the center of attention once again. In Google v. Spain, the ECJ decided that Google must be seen as the controller of the information it indexes. Hence, all legal obligations specified in the Data Protection Directive should be respected by Google and other internet intermediaries like it. In the Delfi v. Estonia, the ECtHR ruled that internet platforms running on User Generated Content and user comments can rely on the freedom of speech, protected under article 10 ECHR. Still, this right may be curtailed if the rights of others are infringed through, for example, defamatory user comments. It is interesting to see that these two regimes are now applied to internet providers, while originally, the e-Commerce Directive from 20004 was meant to be the main juridical framework under which to judge the liability of internet intermediaries for actions conducted by their users through their networks.
Keywords: privacy, data protection, e-commerce, liability, ISP
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation