The General Court of the European Union today dismissed Amazon’s appeal against its classification by the European Commission as a “very large online platform” under the Digital Services Act regulations.
According to a statement, in its judgment issued today, the General Court dismissed the appeal by Amazon EU Sàrl.
Amazon EU Sàrl, which operates the Amazon Store platform, had requested the annulment of the decision by which the Commission designated this platform as a “very large online platform” under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Amazon challenges the legality of the regulation provision that determines online platforms, including online marketplaces, must be designated as very large online platforms and subjected to specific obligations regarding transparency, cooperation, and data access.
None of the arguments succeeded in the General Court’s assessment.
The online retail giant argued that this provision violates several fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, including the freedom to conduct business, property rights, the principle of equality before the law, freedom of expression and information, as well as the right to privacy and the protection of confidential information.
A platform or search engine is qualified as “very large” when it exceeds the threshold of 45 million users in the EU (i.e., 10% of the bloc’s population).
