The Electronic Commerce Directive (Hatred against Persons on Religious Grounds or the Grounds of Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2010

Exception for mere conduits

5.—(1) A service provider is not capable of being guilty of a relevant offence in respect of anything done in the course of providing so much of an information society service as consists in—

(a) the provision of access to a communication network; or

(b) the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service,

if the transmission condition is satisfied.

(2) The transmission condition is that the service provider does not—

(a) initiate the transmission;

(b) select the recipient of the transmission; or

(c) select or modify the information contained in the transmission.

(3) Paragraph (1)(b) does not apply if the information is information to which regulation 6 applies.

(4) For the purposes of this regulation, the provision of access to a communication network and the transmission of information in the network includes the automatic, intermediate and transient storage of information for the purpose of carrying out the transmission in the network.

(5) Paragraph (4) does not apply if the information is stored for longer than is reasonably necessary for the transmission.