by Desislava Stankova | Jul 29, 2015 | Blogging, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Social Media Law
It is a story about mr.L (a ferry company majority shareholder), an article in Delfi (one of the largest Estonian news portals), plenty of insulting comments under the article and the freedom of expression in the EU. The story ended recently on June 16, 2015 when the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) upheld the 2013 decision of the Chamber of the ECtHR on the Delfi v. Estonia (no.64569/09) case. But let`s see how did it all begin. The Story It all started in 2006 with an article about mr. L’s shipping company which changed routes of its ferries and the implications this change had on ice roads. Hundreds of angry comments followed with about 20 of them being truly insulting to mr. L and even vulgar. The owner’s lawyers contacted Delfi and requested the immediate removal of the defamatory comments and the payment of damages to mr. L. Delfi, following its notice-and-takedown regime, deleted the comments (which have been visible for 6 weeks already) the same day, but refused to pay damages. Thus, Mr. L brought the case to the Estonian court, claiming about 32,000 EUR in damages. Estonian Court decision(s) Delfi lost the case in the Estonian courts and damages were awarded to the shipping company owner. The courts in Estonia concluded that the comments, being defamatory and insulting, cannot be protected as freedom of expression. The amount of the damages have been ridiculously small, only 320 EUR, but one may wonder how did Delfi lost at all, considering the limited liability provided to intermediaries under the EU’s e-Commerce Directive. Indeed Delfi claimed...
