LuxembourgLoi du 18 avril 2001 sur les droits d’auteur, article 70 bis (Online Content-Sharing Service Providers)
In force since .
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Licensing, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- Obtain authorization from the rights holders before giving the public access to protected works your users have uploaded; the access counts as your own communication to the public (Article 70 bis(2)).
- If you have no authorization, avoid liability for unauthorized communication by showing that you made best efforts to obtain authorization, made best efforts, to high industry standards of professional diligence, to ensure the unavailability of specific works for which rights holders gave you the relevant and necessary information, and acted promptly on a sufficiently substantiated notice to block access to or remove the work and made best efforts to prevent its future upload (Article 70 bis(5)).
- If your services have been available to the public in the Union for less than three years and your annual turnover is below EUR 10 million, show only best efforts to obtain authorization and prompt action on a sufficiently substantiated notice; if your average monthly unique visitors, calculated on the previous calendar year, exceed 5 million, also show best efforts to prevent further uploads of the notified works (Article 70 bis(7)).
- Do not let cooperation with rights holders prevent the availability of uploaded works that do not infringe copyright, including works used under the exceptions for quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody or pastiche (Article 70 bis(8)).
- On request, give rights holders adequate information on how your cooperation works and, where you have licensing agreements, on the use of the content they cover (Article 70 bis(9)).
- Provide users an effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanism for blocked or removed uploads, decide complaints without undue delay, have a natural person review each decision to block or remove, and tell users in your terms and conditions that they may use works under the exceptions and limitations (Article 70 bis(10)).
What this law does
Article 70 bis(2) treats a provider of online content-sharing services that gives the public access to protected works uploaded by its users as communicating those works to the public, and requires it to obtain authorization from the rights holders.
Article 70 bis(5) makes the provider liable for unauthorized communication to the public unless it shows its best efforts to obtain authorization, to ensure the unavailability of specific works for which rights holders supplied information, and to act promptly on a sufficiently substantiated notice.
Article 70 bis(7) limits those conditions for a new provider whose services have been available to the public in the Union for less than three years and whose annual turnover is below a stated threshold. Article 70 bis(9) states that the article creates no general obligation to monitor, and requires the provider to give rights holders adequate information on its cooperation on request.
Article 70 bis(10) requires the provider to put in place an effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanism for users whose uploads are blocked or removed, with human review of the decisions. Article 41, point i) defines the online content-sharing service provider and excludes services such as non-profit online encyclopedias, open source software platforms, online marketplaces and business-to-business cloud services. The article was inserted by the Loi du 1er avril 2022 and took effect on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.