(AGENPARL) – gio 30 maggio 2024 PRESS RELEASE No 89/24
Luxembourg, 30 May 2024
Judgments of the Court in Joined Cases C-662/22 | Airbnb Ireland and C-667/22 | Amazon Services
Europe, Case C-663/22 | Expedia, Joined Cases C-664/22 | Google Ireland and C-666/22 | Eg Vacation
Rentals Ireland, and Case C-665/22 | Amazon Services Europe
E-commerce: a Member State may not impose additional obligations on an
online service provider established in another Member State
In Italy, providers of online intermediation services and search engines, such as Airbnb, Expedia, Google, Amazon
and Vacation Rentals, are subject to certain obligations under national provisions. They were adopted in 2020 and
2021, with the stated aim of ensuring the adequate and effective enforcement of the regulation on promoting
fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services 1. Providers of those services must,
inter alia, be entered in a register held by an administrative authority (AGCOM), periodically forward to it a
document on their economic situation, provide it with a series of detailed information and pay it a financial
contribution. Penalties are provided for in the event of failure to comply with those obligations.
The above-mentioned companies are challenging those obligations before an Italian court, on the grounds that the
resulting increase in administrative charges is contrary to EU law 2. All those companies – except for Expedia, which
is established in the United States – invoke the principle of freedom to provide services and argue that they are
mainly subject to the legal system of the Member State in which they are established (in this case, Ireland or
Luxembourg). Therefore, they consider that Italian law cannot impose on them other requirements relating to
access to the activity of information society services. In that context, the Italian court decided to refer the matter to
the Court of Justice.
The Court of Justice holds that EU law precludes measures such as those adopted by Italy.
Under the Directive on electronic commerce, it is the home Member State of the company providing information
society services that regulates the provision of those services. Member States of destination, bound by the principle
of mutual recognition, are required, save in exceptional circumstances, not to restrict the freedom to provide those
services. Thus, Italy cannot impose on providers of those services established in other Member States
additional obligations which, although required for the provision of those services in that country, are not
imposed in their Member State of establishment.
According to the Court of Justice, those obligations do not fall within the exceptions permitted by the Directive on
electronic commerce. First, they are, subject to verification by the Italian court, of general and abstract application.
Secondly, they are not necessary in order to protect one of the objectives of general interest referred to in that
directive. Moreover, the establishment of those obligations is not justified by the intention, invoked by the Italian
authorities, to ensure the adequate and effective enforcement of the above-mentioned regulation.
Communications Directorate
Press and Information Unit
curia.europa.eu
NOTE: A reference for a preliminary ruling allows the courts and tribunals of the Member States, in disputes which
have been brought before them, to refer questions to the Court of Justice about the interpretation of EU law or the
validity of an EU act. The Court of Justice does not decide the dispute itself. It is for the national court or tribunal to
dispose of the case in accordance with the Court’s decision, which is similarly binding on other national courts or
tribunals before which a similar issue is raised.
Unofficial document for media use, not binding on the Court of Justice.
The full text and, as the case may be, an abstract of the judgments (C-662/22 and C-667/22, C-663/22, C-664/22 and
C-666/22, C-665/22) are published on the CURIA website on the day of delivery.
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Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business
users of online intermediation services.
To Regulation 2019/1150 and, except in Case C-663/22 Expedia, to several directives, in particular Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market
(‘Directive on electronic commerce’).