European Court of Justice rejects Italian e-commerce regulation for search engines and intermediation services

Brussels – The European Court of Justice today (May 30) issued a judgment rejecting part of Italy’s e-commerce regulations. The Luxembourg judges found that the obligation of intermediation services providers and search engines (such as Booking, Amazon, Google, etc.) to give more information and pay an economic contribution to the Italian State is against European single market regulations.

The ruling came after a request for clarification from an Italian judge, who had to decide on the appeal filed by online platforms. The Court rejected provisions adopted in 2020 and 2021, the stated aim of which was to promote fairness and transparency for users of online intermediation services. However, the Luxembourg judges ruled that all companies, including those operating exclusively on the Internet, do not have specific obligations to member states if they are based in one of the EU countries. Specifically, all brokerage service companies have headquarters in Ireland or Luxembourg, so they do not have to be subject to Italian obligations. The only exception is Expedia, which has its headquarters in the United States.

The regulation stipulated that providers of intermediation services and search engines had to be included in a register kept by Agcom, periodically forward to it a document on their economic situation, communicate a series of detailed information, and pay a financial contribution. However, the Luxembourg judges ruled that Italy cannot impose additional obligations not envisaged in the Member State where these providers are established. After the ruling, however, it is up to the Italian courts to resolve the legal dispute.