EU Court: “Google may be held liable for videos posted on YouTube”

Brussels – Google may be held liable for the YouTube videos of a
content creator with whom it has a commercial partnership. This was established by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which, in its judgment, clarified EU law. The ruling concerns the dispute between the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) and the well-known web operator, with AGCOM imposing a 750,000 euro fine on Google Ireland for videos promoting online gambling in breach of Italian regulations.

 The judges in Luxembourg clarified that “EU law excludes gambling, and all activities linked to it, from the scope
of harmonisation in electronic commerce” because of the profound moral, religious and cultural differences between the
Member States in that regard. At the same time, however, renting space on a website or platform (online hosting) “is not intrinsically linked to gambling,” since it consists of storing, in a neutral
manner, content provided by the user, without any promotional intent. Therefore, online hosting “is therefore not covered by the
exclusion laid down in EU law and thus falls within the scope of the EU legislation on electronic commerce.”

 In this specific case, Google may be exempt from liability if it was unaware of the information transmitted or stored. However, the Court of Justice of the EU clarified that, when a web operator, for the purpose of concluding a commercial partnership agreement, examines the main theme of a video channel, the most-viewed or most recent videos on that channel, as well as the relevant metadata, “it acquires specific knowledge of the essential content of a set of videos and cannot therefore
claim to act as an intermediary service provider.” For this reason, Google may be held liable.