The EU General Court delivered a decisive judgment affirming the European Commission's designation of the Amazon Store as a "Very Large Online Platform" (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Amazon had sought to annul the designation, arguing that the "systemic risks" the DSA intends to mitigate—such as hate speech and election interference—are unique to social media and do not apply to e-commerce retailers. Amazon contended that it was being disproportionately burdened by regulations designed for the "public square".
Rejecting Amazon's "retailer defense," the Court clarified that the definition of "systemic risk" under the DSA is broad and includes the dissemination of illegal content, such as unsafe products and counterfeit goods. The judges established that the threshold of 45 million monthly active users is a bright-line rule; once a platform exceeds this scale, it inherently possesses the capacity to amplify harm regardless of whether it is a marketplace or a social network. Consequently, Amazon must now comply with the strictest tier of DSA regulations, including the requirement to maintain a publicly accessible advertisement repository, providing researchers and competitors with insight into its algorithmic targeting.
Source: COJ - European Union