BelgiumCode de droit économique, Article XII.20 (Orders to Make Content Inaccessible and to Provide Information) and Repeal of Articles XII.17 to XII.19
Code de droit économique, art. XII.20; Loi du 21 avril 2024, arts. 2-5 and 15-18
In force.
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Reporting, Access restriction
As of .
What it requires
- If you provide a service named in Article 3, points (g), (i) and (j) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (an intermediary service, an online platform or an online search engine), make inaccessible the content that is the subject of an infringement established by a competent judicial or administrative authority and committed through your service (Article XII.20, paragraph 1).
- Communicate to the competent judicial or administrative authorities, on their request, all the specific information you hold that is useful for investigating and establishing infringements committed by a specific recipient of your intermediary service (Article XII.20, paragraph 2).
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Article XV.118 of the Code lists, under the opening words that those it names are punished with a level 3 sanction, providers that refuse the cooperation required by Article XII.20, paragraph 1 or paragraph 2 (point 3°, as replaced by Article 5 of the Act of ).
What this law does
Article 4 of the Act of replaces Article XII.20 of the Code de droit économique. Under Article XII.20, paragraph 1, when a competent judicial or administrative authority establishes an infringement relating to specific content, the providers of the services named in Article 3, points (g), (i) and (j) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 make inaccessible the content that is the subject of the infringement committed through their intermediary.
The orders of those authorities meet at least the conditions listed in Article 9, paragraph 2 of the Regulation. Under Article XII.20, paragraph 2, the same providers communicate to the competent judicial or administrative authorities, on request, all the specific information they hold that is useful for investigating and establishing infringements committed by a specific recipient of their intermediary service.
The orders of those authorities meet at least the conditions listed in Article 10, paragraph 2 of the Regulation. Article 5 of the Act replaces point 3° of Article XV.118 of the Code so that it covers providers that refuse the cooperation required by Article XII.20, paragraph 1 or paragraph 2. Article XV.118 of the Code opens with the words that those it lists are punished with a level 3 sanction.
Article 3 of the Act repeals sections 1, 2 and 3 of chapter 6 of title 1 of Book XII of the Code, which contained Articles XII.17, XII.18 and XII.19. The Chamber's explanatory memorandum records that Articles XII.17 to XII.20 had transposed Articles 12 to 15 of Directive 2000/31. Article 2 of the Act replaces, in Article XI.228/3, paragraph 3 of the Code, the reference to Article XII.19, paragraph 1 with a reference to Article 8, paragraph 1 of the Regulation.
Articles 15 to 18 of the Act replace the references to Articles XII.17 to XII.20 in Article 39ter of the Code d'instruction criminelle, in Article 584 of the Judicial Code and in Articles 29 to 29/4 of the Act of on audiovisual media services in the Brussels-Capital bilingual region with references to the corresponding Articles of the Regulation, namely Articles 4, 5, 6 and 8, or Articles 4 and 6 in the Judicial Code.
The BIPT states that it has been designated at federal level by virtue of the Act of . No source stating the day Article XII.20 and these articles came into force has been located.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.