Tech giants do not have to follow Italian authorities’ provisions, rules EU Court

The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) backed Google, Amazon, and Airbnb on Thursday (30 May) in a lawsuit against the Italian Communications Authority’s request that they disclose company information. 

The CJEU reaffirmed the so-called “country of origin” principle, under which a company based in any EU country can provide services across the bloc, but only be bound to the legislation of the member state where it is headquartered.

The online platforms sued Italy’s Communications Authority (AGCOM) over the imposition of obligations to share information with the authority, including company financials, and pay a contribution to the body.

The authority aimed to promote fairness and transparency for consumers of these digital services, the court said in its press release. Non-compliance with the 2020 and 2021 requirements could have led to fines.

The companies argued that Italy’s requirements were in breach of EU legislation and in particular the country of origin principle. EU countries where they offer services must refrain from imposing their own laws, they argued.

In January, the CJEU’s advocate general Maciej Szpunar argued in support of the US plaintiffs. In a non-binding opinion, he said that AGCOM could not “impose general and abstract obligations” on Google Ireland, Airbnb Ireland, and Amazon Luxembourg, because they did not have their EU headquarters in Italy.

The CJEU stated in its press release that “the Court of Justice holds that EU law precludes measures such as those adopted by Italy”.

The country of origin principle has been the basis of EU digital legislation since 2000’s eCommerce Directive.

This principle has changed over the years but was reaffirmed in more recent digital legislation, such as the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation and the 2022 content moderation law, the Digital Services Act.

The country of origin principle does not apply to Expedia, which has not set up EU headquarters and was also part of the lawsuit.

The Court of Justice of the EU’s decision will be applied by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, Italy, where the original dispute was filed.

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[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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