Over the past decade, hosting intermediary services have become the principal actors in providing the public with access to third party-uploaded copyright-protected content. Their increased role in the digital economy and the impact they have on the spread of copyright-infringing content uploaded by their users rendered the old intermediary liability framework under the E-Commerce Directive (Directive 2000/31/EC) and the InfoSoc Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC) inadequate and created a demand for a new liab