22 DELFI AS v. ESTONIA JUDGMENT company argued that it had not played an “active role” but had merely stored comments on its server, set the terms of its service, been (indirectly) remunerated for that service and provided general information to its customers (readers, commentators). 57. The applicant company further referred to the Declaration on freedom of communication on the Internet and Article 15 of the Directive on Electronic Commerce, and argued that a host was not obliged to seek or monitor the hosted material. Such an overly burdensome obligation was contrary to freedom of expression and information. The fact that the applicant company had acted diligently and implemented various technical and manual procedures to reduce the number of illegal comments from the comments area of its portal should not mean that it was liable for illegal content posted by third parties. Otherwise, hosts who took no measures whatsoever to eliminate illegal material would be encouraged, and diligent hosts punished. 58. In conclusion, the applicant company asserted that it had only played a passive role in hosting the comments; it had had no active knowledge of the illicit comments, nor had it been or should have been aware of the illicit comments before the relevant notice by L., after which the applicant company had promptly removed the comments. Thus, the applicant company had acted in accordance with the standards to be observed by a diligent economic operator, and its freedom to impart information via the commenting area of its news portal had been disproportionately interfered with. (b) The Government 59. The Government submitted that Delfi continued to be one of the largest Internet portals in Estonia. The articles published by it were commented on extensively and people could do so without identifying themselves. Thus, the Government rejected the applicant company’s argument that it had had to change its business model. Furthermore, the Government pointed out that the applicant company had also admitted monitoring comments on its own initiative on some occasions even before the proceedings giving rise to the present application. 60. The Government argued that the obligation to avoid causing harm had a clear basis in law and was confirmed by comprehensive case-law (see paragraphs 31 to 39 above). A media publication was usually liable for what it published, and its liability could not be precluded by a disclaimer published by the applicant company, as pursuant to the Obligations Act an agreement which precluded or restricted liability for damage caused unlawfully was void. Pursuant to the domestic law authors and owners of media publications had joint and several liability. 61. The Government maintained that since the publication of comments was under the control of the applicant company and in practice Delfi also