Amazon asks court to scrap EU tech label, arguing it poses no systemic risks
Amazon
asked Europe's second-highest court on Thursday to scrap its designation as a platform subject to stricter requirements under landmark EU online content rules, arguing that it poses no systematic risks to its users.
The
Digital Services Act
, which came into force in 2022, requires Big Tech companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their platforms.
The US online retail giant took its grievance to the Luxembourg-based General Court after the
European Commission
classified it as a very large online platform (VLOP) under the DSA.
A
VLOP designation
requires companies to do more to tackle
illegal online content
, undertake risk management, conduct external and independent auditing and share data with authorities and researchers.
"
Online marketplaces
like the
Amazon Store
do not pose systemic risks. Second, the VLOP rules do not and cannot rationally assist in preventing the dissemination of illegal or counterfeit goods," Amazon's lawyer Robert Spano told the court.
"The VLOP rules therefore make no sense when applied to online marketplaces," he said.
Amazon said any risks are limited to individual customers, not the totality of its users and that even if problematic products exist, widespread exposure is minimal and already dealt with by a number of product safety and compliance laws.
"When it comes to marketplaces like the Amazon Store, size does not multiply risk. It is an arbitrary, disproportionate and discriminatory metric," Spano said.
The court will rule in the coming months.
Meta Platforms
, Chinese social media app
TikTok
and German online retailer Zalando have also challenged the DSA on various grounds.
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