FinlandLaki sähköisen viestinnän palveluista (Act on Electronic Communications Services), Sections 185 and 186, Court Orders to Block Stored Information
In force since .
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Access restriction
As of .
What it requires
- If a district court orders you, as a hosting service provider, to block access to information you store, block access to it; the order is backed by a fine.
- Do not make the information available again while a request to revoke the blocking order is pending, unless the court hearing it allows.
- If the court so orders because the content producer is unknown, take care of serving the blocking order on the content producer.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
District courts, on the application of a prosecutor, an investigation leader or the person whose right is concerned; the Helsinki District Court may always hear the application.
What this law does
Section 185 of the Electronic Communications Services Act lets the district court, on the application of a prosecutor, an investigation leader or the person whose right is concerned, order a hosting service provider, on pain of a fine, to block access to information it stores, if the information is manifestly such that keeping it available or transmitting it is punishable or a ground for liability in damages.
Section 185 requires the application to be handled urgently and bars granting it without giving the provider and the content producer a chance to be heard, unless the urgency of the matter prevents a hearing. Section 185 allows the order to be directed at a telecommunications undertaking that relays the information if the hosting service provider cannot be identified or is outside Finnish jurisdiction and the information is evidently an offence punishable by at least two years of imprisonment.
Section 185 makes the order lapse unless charges for an offence based on the information, or, for liability in damages, an action, are brought within three months of the order. Section 185 lets the hosting service provider, the content producer and the telecommunications undertaking apply to the same court to revoke the order within 14 days of learning of it.
Section 186 sends the application to the district court of the domicile of the hosting service provider or telecommunications undertaking, or to the Helsinki District Court. Act 20/2024 repealed Sections 182 to 184, 184 a and 187 to 194 of the Act and rewrote Sections 185 and 186, with effect from .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.