The rights of the consumer who hires a website hosting company is a subject that always raises many doubts.
After all, this type of service is still unknown to the general public, which makes it difficult to understand how the laws are applied in these cases.
If you rent a house, you know what to expect and therefore it is easier to identify rights and obligations arising from the signing of the contract. Now when it comes to website hosting, the situation changes a lot, and for a layperson to identify what their rights are can be quite complicated.
The contracting of a hosting service is defined as the acquisition of services and is supported by the Consumer Defense Code. In other words, you have the same rights as when hiring a telephone line or internet service.
What Does the Law Say?
In legal terms, the hosting provider is "the legal entity providing services that consist of enabling the storage of data on its own remote access servers, allowing third-party access to this data, in accordance with the conditions established with the contracting party of the service".
This type of service stores all your website information (which are nothing more than files that the internet browser displays to users) in a remote location (hosting server) allowing you and anyone else to visit your website from any place in the world.
Just this small definition of the previous paragraph, we observe 4 legal obligations of a hosting provider:
- Providing a service: Just like cleaning a car, installing an appliance, or setting up a closed-circuit surveillance camera, offering website hosting is a service, as it's not something tangible like a product. As much as what is sold, in this case, is the space on a hard drive located somewhere in the world.
- Enable data storage: the service offered is to store data from a website on the contracted server. A certain amount of storage space, as well as RAM memory and other configurations, are defined in advance in the contract and must be respected.
- Allow third-party access: Unlike most places where someone keeps something, the idea here is to make people see what you've stored. The history of your company, the products you offer, who your customers are, and how the person interested in what you sell, can contact you.
- Fulfill the conditions established in the contract: as is customary in any service that requires the signing of a contract, it is assumed that the conditions that are written there must be fulfilled by both parties.
On the above items, the first three are very clear as to what must be done. The fourth obligation is usually, due to the specificity of each contract, subject to judgment on a case-by-case basis, but there are some points that should also be taken into account, as we will see later.
General duties of hosting providers
From the beginning, every website hosting service provider must use appropriate technologies to guarantee the operation of the contracted service. Upon signing a contract, the supplier becomes aware of the data of its users, having the right to keep this information and other data on the site for a specified period, not monitoring or censoring them, but must, however, report any offensive acts committed by the user, when perceived.
The hosting provider must guarantee a functioning system and invest in the constant updating of software that protects customer and user data against server invasions by third parties. Therefore, he is not responsible in the event of an attack that uses a more powerful tool than the technology available on the market. Furthermore, hosting providers are also subject to possible malfunctions and failures in equipment and systems.
Just as every free and conscientious citizen is responsible for his own actions, hosting service providers are held to the same standard. And, to protect consumers from bad providers, we have articles 14 and 20 of the Consumer Protection Code, which reads as follows:
Art. 14. The service provider is responsible, regardless of the existence of a fault, for the repair of damages caused to consumers by defects related to the provision of services, as well as for insufficient or inadequate information about its enjoyment and risks.
Art. 20. The service provider is liable for quality defects that make them unsuitable for consumption or reduce their value, as well as for those arising from the disparity with the indications contained in the offer or advertising message, and the consumer may alternatively demand:
● I - the re-execution of services, at no additional cost and when applicable;
● II - the immediate refund of the amount paid, monetarily restated, without prejudice to any losses and damages;
● III - the proportional reduction of the price.
- The re-execution of services may be entrusted to duly trained third parties, at the supplier's expense and risk.
- Services that prove inadequate for the purposes reasonably expected of them, as well as those that do not meet the regulatory standards of serviceability, are inappropriate.
Facilitating the "legalese", the first article says that, even if it is not the fault of the service provider, it must be liable for damages caused to consumers due to defects related to the provision of services offered, as well as for everything that he did not explain or leave to explain about the use and risks of what you sold.
Article 20, in turn, says that the service provider is responsible for the quality of what it sells, responsible for defects or any other situation outside the buyer that reduces the value of the good sold, as well as for misleading advertising, giving the buyer the possibility of a new product or service provided by the same or another company, reimbursement or proportional reduction of the price.
But remember, the service provider cannot be held responsible for failures caused by the customer. If the service user installs a vulnerable application and it is going to be used as a gateway for hackers, the hosting company cannot be held responsible by legal means.
And when they don't have legal responsibility?
As they are, in their nature, a service that houses third-party content and cannot carry out any type of censorship on them, hosting providers are not responsible for this content. However, if content whose blocking was requested by the court remains available, the service provider may be held liable.
If there is any controversy about the illegality of the content, and if there is no violation of the terms of service provided for in the contract, hosting providers should not remove or block access to the information, but rather wait for a court solution.
Other Common Obligations
Like any service, website hosting has its specifics and differentials, which can often appear as a selling point in an advertisement for the service. In these cases, the law of that fourth item at the beginning of our text applies. For this, you will have to verify that everything that is being sold in the advertisement matches what is in the contract, and then if everything that is in the contract matches what is being offered, here are some examples:
- Uptime: Most major services claim to offer 99.9% availability. This means that your page will be available almost all the time for anyone who wants to access it, falling only in rare cases of a crash. For this, it is good to have some online tools that monitor the site's uptime. Use them whenever you suspect that your page may not be available within the promised time.
- Type of accommodation: it is very, very rare to even happen, but buying a pig in a poke in accommodation can be a reality. If you paid more for a dedicated server, make sure that the service you purchased is the service delivered. If you have contracted a differentiated shared hosting plan, with more benefits and features, also keep an eye out. In either case, read even the fine print and be wary of contracts that are too long, they can hide losses for you in the midst of prolixity.
- Security and SSL: as in the case above, some types of hosting sell more security or even SSL certificates for your website. Make sure these products are genuine before closing the deal. The biggest companies usually act correctly in these cases. Risk is the lesser-known or obscure, which may sell and simply not deliver, offering little or no support for your queries once the agreed amount is paid by you.
Conclusion
Hosting services are needed to keep web pages up and running. However, just like any service provider, they must comply with a series of obligations provided for by law, in addition to others promised in the contract.
If this does not happen, the client has his rights guaranteed by law and must go after them, always remembering that all his rights imply someone's duty and vice versa: the contracting party's obligations in relation to the contract must also be fulfilled.
For this, it is ideal to carefully read each point of the text and only sign if both parties are in perfect agreement with the proposed terms. Thus, you have more security to promote your brand on the internet towards success.
If the customer feels aggrieved, he can seek help from his state or file a complaint. Before suing the company in court, it is important to look for other means of solving the problem, otherwise, the court may refuse to consider the case.
It is also important to consult a lawyer, as only he or she can give definitive guidance as to what can be done about your case.