Hosting in the light of the Act on E-services Provision

It is worth noting what ruling was some time ago awarded by the District Court in Warsaw with regards to the case of the docket number: I C 407/12. In the justification to the decision, the Court held a position regarding among others hosting services in the light of hosting provider’s liability exemption (article 14 of the Act on E-services Provision).

For the sake of recollecting the background – so far two approaches to the matter at issue have emerged:

• the prevailing approach – according to which hosting is to be understood broadly, i.e. assuming that a service comprising among others hosting is liability exempted under article 14 of the Act on E-services Provision;
• the isolated approach – according to which only data storage is liability exempted. Hence, services comprising hosting only as a component among other services are not liability exempted under article 14 of the Act on E-services Provision.

The said court ruling is worthwhile for it supports the isolated approach. The District Court did not hold any comprehensive analyses in that respect, which allows making a conclusion that the Court based its decision on the literary understanding of the provision in question. With regards to the matter at issue, the Court referred to my views expressed in the article “Making a Work Publicly Available on the Internet”, published in the Commercial Law Review (Przegląd Prawa  Handlowego)  3/2009.