Court dismisses Zalando’s EU challenge
An EU court has dismissed a challenge by online fashion retailer Zalando to its designation by the European Commission as a ‘very large online platform’ (VLOP).
Such a designation means that a platform faces additional obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), in particular to protect consumers and combat the dissemination of illegal content.
The commission found that the average monthly number of active users of the Zalando platform was more than 83 million – well above the DSA threshold of 45 million.
Third-party sellers
Zalando had argued that, as it also sold products directly itself, the number of monthly users exposed to its platform for third-party sellers was 30 million.
The EU’s General Court found that Zalando was an ‘online platform’ within the meaning of EU rules, as third-party sellers marketed products on it under its ‘partner programme’.
By contrast, the court said, it was not an online platform in relation to the direct sale of products by Zalando itself, under ‘Zalando Retail’.
‘Unable to distinguish’
The judges stated that, since Zalando was unable to distinguish users who were exposed to its ‘partner programme’ from those who were not, the commission could consider that they were all deemed to be exposed to it.
“The General Court also rejects Zalando's arguments that the rules of the Digital Services Regulation relating to the classification of very large online platforms violate the principles of legal certainty, equal treatment, and proportionality,” the judgment stated.
Zalando has said that it will appeal the lower court’s ruling to the EU’s Court of Justice.