In an order handed down on Wednesday 27 March (Case C-639/23 P(R)), the Court of Justice of the European Union has annulled the suspension, ordered by the President of the General Court of the European Union, of Amazon Store’s obligation to publish its advertising register under the ‘DSA’ regulation governing digital services.
In April 2023, under the Digital Services Act (Regulation 2022/2065), the European Commission designated Amazon Store as a very large online platform (Decision C(2023)2746 - see EUROPE 13169/8).
As a result, the platform is obliged to make available to the public a register containing detailed information about its online advertising. These include the content of the advertisement, the person for whom the advertisement is presented, the period during which the advertisement was presented, the main parameters used to target certain recipients, commercial communications published on very large online platforms and the total number of recipients of the service reached.
The American digital giant is seeking to have this decision annulled and, by order, the President of the General Court has ordered that the decision be suspended until September 2023. The European Commission then appealed against this order to the CJEU.
In today’s order, the Vice-President of the Court of Justice has set aside that part of the order of the President of the General Court which suspends the Commission’s decision regarding the advertising register. He notes that the latter was unable to take a position onAmazon 's arguments during the proceedings.
Since the Commission has presented to the Court the arguments it intended to put up against the case presented by Amazon before the General Court, the Vice-President of the Court of Justice has given final judgment on the dispute and dismissed the application for interim measures.
He considers that Amazon 's argument that the obligation to make an advertising register available to the public unlawfully restricts its fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of enterprise is not, prima facie, irrelevant.
Nevertheless, he points out, maintaining the suspension of the obligation to make the advertising register available would mean postponing, potentially for a period of several years, the full achievement of the objectives of the 'DSA' Regulation, while the EU legislator has considered that very large platforms play an important role in respecting fundamental rights online.
According to the President of the CJEU, the interests defended by the EU legislator outweigh Amazon's material interests in this case, so that the balance of interests favours rejecting the request for suspension. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)