issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 294 (2013)
10.10.2013
Making an Internet news portal liable for the offensive online
comments of its readers was justified
not final1, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:
No violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case concerned the liability of an Internet news portal for offensive comments that were posted
by readers below one of its online news articles. The portal complained that being held liable for the
comments of its readers breached its right to freedom of expression.
The Court held that the finding of liability by the Estonian courts was a justified and proportionate
restriction on the portal’s right to freedom of expression, in particular, because: the comments were
highly offensive; the portal failed to prevent them from becoming public, profited from their
existence, but allowed their authors to remain anonymous; and, the fine imposed by the Estonian
courts was not excessive.
Of particular interest was the Court’s finding on the issue of the lawfulness of the interference with
the portal’s right to freedom of expression. Though the portal had argued that an EU Directive on
Electronic Commerce, as transposed into Estonian law, had made it exempt from liability, the Court
found that it was for national courts to resolve issues of interpretation of domestic law, and
therefore did not address the issue under EU law.
Principal facts
The applicant, Delfi AS, is a public limited company registered in Estonia. It owns one of the largest
internet news sites in the country.
In January 2006, Delfi published an article on its webpage about a ferry company. It discussed the
company’s decision to change the route its ferries took to certain islands. This had caused ice to
break where ice roads could have been made in the near future. As a result, the opening of these
roads – a cheaper and faster connection to the islands compared to the ferry services – was
postponed for several weeks. Below the article, readers were able to access the comments of other
users of the site. Many readers had written highly offensive or threatening posts about the ferry
operator and its owner.
The owner sued Delfi in April 2006, and successfully obtained a judgment against it in June 2008. The
Estonian court found that the comments were defamatory, and that Delfi was responsible for them.
The owner of the ferry company was awarded 5,000 kroons (EEK) in damages (around 320 euros
[EUR]). An appeal by Delfi was dismissed by Estonia’s Supreme Court in June 2009. In particular, the
domestic courts rejected the portal’s argument that, under EU Directive 2000/31/EC on Electronic
1 Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, this Chamber judgment is not final. During the three-month
period following its delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the
Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further
examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. If the referral
request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for
supervision of its execution. Further information about the execution process can be found here:
