Tobacco Bill will let ISPs off the hook

Following intervention from the Government on their behalf, Internet service providers (ISPs) have escaped being defined as publishers of advertising in the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill.

The decision is an important victory for ISPs, which argue that they are conduits to websites run by third parties.

Under the Bill, it will be illegal for tobacco advertising to be published on the Internet.

However, defining ISPs as publishers of this advertising would have left them open to prosecution under a wider range of laws such as those covering defamation.

Lord Filkin, speaking for the Department of Health, told a House of Lords committee meeting last week that the Government was willing to make the concession because it is currently defining the legal responsibilities of ISPs in its transposition of the EU’s e-commerce directive, and does not want any disparities to arise.

The Bill’s proposer, Lord Clement-Jones, who dismissed a suggestion last month that ISPs should not be defined as publishers, accepted the amendment on the proviso that the e-commerce directive achieves “greater consistency”.

A date has yet to be set for a third committee meeting to discuss further amendments.

The Internet Service Providers’ Association welcomed the news.