By Foo Yun Chee <\/p>\n
BRUSSELS, July 16 (Reuters) – Alphabet unit Google is not immune from liability for videos uploaded to YouTube by commercial partners, Europe’s top \u200ccourt said on Thursday, a ruling which could put social media networks on \u200cthe hook for uploaded content not managed by them. <\/p>\n
The case before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the \u200bEuropean Union (CJEU) centred on a spat between Google and Italy’s communication authority which fined the company \u20ac750,000 ($854,250) for gambling advertising on its YouTube video platform four years ago. <\/p>\n
Google had challenged the fine handed out by an Italian administrative court in 2022, prompting that court to seek guidance \u200cfrom the CJEU. <\/p>\n
The U.S. tech \u2060giant said it was shielded from liability for content uploaded by third parties under EU telecoms rules. The YouTube videos promoting online gambling \u2060had been uploaded by a content creator with a commercial partnership deal with Google. <\/p>\n
Big Tech has repeatedly cited this exemption against attempts by regulators and users to hold them responsible for content \u200buploaded \u200bto their platforms amid growing worries globally about \u200bthe impact of social media on \u200cchildren. <\/p>\n
“Google may be held liable for the YouTube videos of a content creator with whom it has a commercial partnership,” the CJEU said. <\/p>\n
Judges said online platforms could claim exemption from liability if they merely “act as an intermediary service provider carrying out a strictly technical, automated and passive activity, excluding any knowledge or control over the information which is transmitted \u200cor stored.” <\/p>\n
“That is not the case where an operator \u200breviews, for the purpose of concluding a commercial \u200bpartnership contract, the main theme of a \u200bvideo channel, that channel’s most viewed videos or newest videos and \u200cthe associated metadata,” the CJEU said. <\/p>\n
Google expressed \u200bits disappointment and added \u200bit wanted more clarity on the matter. <\/p>\n
“We are disappointed by the CJEU’s decision, which we will need further clarity on. We will raise our arguments before the \u200bCouncil of State,” said \u200ca Google spokesperson. <\/p>\n
The Italian court will now rule on the merits of the \u200bcase based on the CJEU’s judgement. <\/p>\n
The case is C-421\/24AGCOM (Online gambling). <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Foo Yun \u200bChee; Editing by Susan Fenton\/Kirsten Donovan\/Sudip Kar-Gupta) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS, July 16 (Reuters) – Alphabet unit Google is not immune from liability for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22553,15999,22552,22555,14508,22426,5,22557,4341,22554,22556,11882],"class_list":["post-33047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-administrative-court","tag-cjeu","tag-commercial-partners","tag-commercial-partnership","tag-content-creator","tag-google","tag-italy","tag-liability","tag-online-gambling","tag-social-media-networks","tag-top-court","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}