The USMCA impacts the Canadian Intermediary Liability Regime

The United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), replacing the NAFTA, is expected to be signed by the end of November 2019. The agreement provides robust intermediary liability protections to websites and online platforms. The article 19.17.2 of the agreement reflects the American Communication Decency Act at a large extent, providing that ‘no Party shall adopt or maintain measures that threat a supplier or user of an interactive computer service as an information content provider in determining liability for harms related to information stored, processed, transmitted, distributed, or made available by the service, except to the extent the supplier or user has, in whole or in part, created, or developed the information’. This provision, depending on how it will be integrated into Canadian law by the parliament, can impact the Canadian system of intermediary liabilities. Contrary to the US, Canadian law holds websites liable for third-party content, if they know that the content is illegal. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Internet service providers (ISPs) can become liable when they do not take action once given notice of an infringement, in two landmark cases, SOCAN v. Canadian Association of Internet Providers and Crookes v. Newton.