Australian Capital Territory Current Acts

CIVIL LAW (WRONGS) ACT 2002 - SECT 257

    (1)     This section applies to the amendments made to this Act by the Civil Law (Wrongs) Amendment Act 2024

about (the "digital intermediary amendments")—

        (a)     exempting digital intermediaries from liability for defamation; or

        (b)     providing a defence for publications of defamatory digital matter involving digital intermediaries.

    (2)     Except as provided by subsection (3) (b), the digital intermediary amendments apply to a post-commencement action.

    (3)     The existing law continues to apply, despite the digital intermediary amendments—

        (a)     to a pre-commencement action; and

        (b)     to a post-commencement action, but only if—

              (i)     the post-commencement action is 1 of 2 or more causes of action in proceedings commenced by a plaintiff; and

              (ii)     each cause of action in the proceedings accrues because of the publication of the same, or substantially the same, matter on separate occasions, whether by the same defendant or another defendant; and

              (iii)     1 or more of the other causes of action in the proceedings are pre-commencement actions; and

              (iv)     the post-commencement action accrued no later than 12 months after the date on which the earliest pre-commencement action in the proceedings accrued.