EU: Amazon Loses Legal Challenge of DSA Regulations

Apr 19, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

Amazon is required to make a public ad repository publicly available online. The US online retailer recently lost its case before the European Court of Justice (hereinafter ECJ).

Amazon Services Europe is part of the Amazon Group. Its business activities include online retail and other services such as cloud computing and online streaming. The company provides online marketplace services to third-party sellers which enables them to offer goods for sale in the Amazon Store.

Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission designated the Amazon Store as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) on 23 April 2023.

This categorisation is linked to compliance with specific obligations under the DSA, in the case at hand, the disclosure of an ad repository containing information about online advertising. Amazon applied to the ECJ for annulment of the decision to designate it as a VLOP as well as for interim relief. In September 2023, the president of the ECJ ordered the suspension of the Commission’s decision to publish the ad database.

The Commission successfully appealed again.

The ECJ has now ruled: The suspension of the Commission’s decision is lifted.

The Commission was denied the opportunity to comment on the arguments put forward by Amazon in the procedure. This violated the principle of an adversarial procedure. According to Amazon, the obligation to make the advertising repository publicly available violates the fundamental rights to respect for private life and freedom to conduct a business.

According to the vice-president of the ECJ, although Amazon’s arguments cannot be considered irrelevant and, moreover, completely unfounded, the interests of EU legislation takes precedence. The suspension of the case would mean the possible postponement for several years of the full achievement of the objectives of the regulation on a single market for digital services and thus the possible development of an online environment that is a threat to fundamental rights.

The final judgment in this case will be delivered at a later date.

ECJ Press Release No 60/24 on Case C-639/23 (27 March 2024)