Ofcom confirms that publicly accessible law firm messaging falls inside the Online Safety Act while authenticated client portals sit outside it, and publishes a decision tree for the borderline cases

Ofcom confirmed that law firm websites offering user-to-user messaging fall within the Online Safety Act's scope where the messaging is available to the public. Firms operating client portals behind authentication are outside it. The regulator published a decision tree for borderline cases and said enforcement will prioritise services with the largest reach rather than professional services sites.