The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the imposition by a Member State of additional administrative and financial obligations on online service providers established in another Member State is incompatible with the European Union law on the freedom to provide services.
Following measures adopted by the Italian authorities impose specific obligations on online service providers, such as registration in a national register, provision of detailed information on their corporate structure and payment of a financial contribution. The measures applied to all online service providers, including those established in other Member States.
Airbnb and Amazon (based in Ireland and Luxembourg respectively) challenged the measures in court, arguing that they are contrary to the principle of the freedom to provide services and to the EU law. In this context, the Italian courts referred a question to the Court of Justice of the European Union in order to determine whether such measures, applicable to providers of online intermediation services established in another Member State, with a view to providing their services in the first Member State, constitute an infringement of the EU law.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in favour of the two companies. The Court recalled that under the e-Commerce Directive, each Member State must ensure that the services of the information society comply with the national law of the Member State in which the provider is established. Furthermore, Member States may not restrict the free movement of these services except in the cases expressly and exhaustively provided for in the Directive. The Court also points out that the Directive is based on the principle of mutual recognition, according to which a service of the information society, once regulated by the Member State of origin, may be freely provided in other Member States.
The Court concluded that the Italian authorities’ measures are contrary to the E-Commerce Directive because they impose additional restrictions on the free movement of the services provided by the information society and do not fall within the scope of the derogations allowed by the Directive.
