Voice of Europe on the sanctions list – new obligations for providers of electronic communications services

CTU informs that the Government, in accordance with Act No.1/2023 Coll., on restrictive measures against certain serious conduct in international relations (the Sanctions Act), issued Resolution No.195 of 27 April 2024 (see https://www.odok.cz/portal/zvlady/usneseni/2024/195/), by which it decided, inter alia, to add the legal person Voice of Europe s.r.o. with its registered office at Krakovská 583/9, 110 00 Prague 1, to the national sanctions list.

Restrictive measures are to be applied to this entity, a legal person, Voice of Europe s.r.o., within the scope of Section 6(2)(b) and (c) of Act No. 69/2006 Coll, on the implementation of international sanctions, as amended (the Sanctions Implementation Act). In particular, it concerns the restriction or prohibition of the provision of electronic communications services for the purpose of communication with the sanctioned entity, i.e. Voice of Europe s.r.o., pursuant to Section 6(2)(b) of the Act on the Implementation of International Sanctions and the provision of other communication with the entity, i.e. Voice of Europe s.r.o., pursuant to Article 6(2)(c) of that Act.

CTU would like to point out that as a result of the above decision to include the legal person Voice of Europe s.r.o. on the national sanctions list, the obligations related to the provisions of Section 6(2)(b) and (c) of the Sanctions Implementation Act fall on providers of electronic communications services or other communications. These obligations consist not only in not providing any electronic communications service to that entity or any connection with it, but also, in the case of providers of Internet access services, in preventing access to websites operated by Voice of Europe s.r.o., according to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the following websites: www.voiceofeurope.com  and www.voiceofeurope.eu.

The Government's decision on inclusion on the national sanctions list is a decision of a public authority with appropriate powers within the meaning of point (a) of the third subparagraph of Article 3(3) of Regulation 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down measures concerning access to the open internet and retail prices for regulated communications within the Union and amending Directive 2002/22/EC and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and thus preventing access to the content of this website constitutes a permissible exception under this Regulation.