Liability of intermediary service providers in Romania

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the legislation, doctrinal opinions and relevant case law regarding the liability of intermediary service providers in Romania and to contribute to the current stage of knowledge in this matter. The objectives pursued by the author are: identification of the peculiarities of the transposition of the E-Commerce Directive into Romanian legislation; identification of problems that could arise from law’s interpretation; issuing of the de lege ferenda proposals. According to Romanian Law, the rule is the liability of the intermediary service provider. The liability limitations apply to certain clearly delimited activities carried out by service providers, precisely defined by art. 12-15 from Law no. 362/2002, as: mere conduit, caching, hosting, search engines and hyperlinks. Romanian Law does not offer the possibility to impose on service provider an obligation to monitor the information they transmit or store or an obligation to actively seek out facts and circumstances, even if it could be only for specific, clearly defined individual case. The notice and take down procedures for illegal content is not a legal obligation according to Romanian Law. The Romanian Law is mandatory only for service providers established in Romania.