United Kingdom: Office of Communications issued provisional notice to Im.ge over failure to comply with statutory information requests under Online Safety Act

On 13 October 2025, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) issued a provisional notice to the provider of the file-sharing service Im.ge, under Section 130 of the Online Safety Act 2023, regarding potential non-compliance with statutory information duties. Ofcom considers that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the provider contravened its duty under Section 102(8) of the Act by failing to respond to two statutory information requests. The provisional notice follows Ofcom’s ongoing investigation, opened on 10 June 2025, into suspected breaches of obligations under the Online Safety Act 2023, including the failure to complete and retain a sufficient illegal-content risk assessment under Sections 9 and 23, and to implement the safety duties relating to illegal content under Section 10. As part of its enforcement programme, Ofcom issued an information notice on 1 April 2025 requesting a response by 1 May 2025, but no response or assessment record was received. The relevant duties, applying to regulated user-to-user services, took effect on 17 March 2025. Ofcom will consider representations from the provider before issuing a final ruling, and may impose financial penalties of up to GBP 18 million or 10% of the provider’s qualifying worldwide revenue.