German online fashion retailer Zalando SE is fighting the European Union’s decision to add it to a list of companies facing extra scrutiny under the bloc’s new content moderation rules at the EU courts.
Zalando on Tuesday filed a challenge at the Luxembourg-based EU courts over the European Commission’s decision to include it among a list of “very large online platforms” required to meet the additional requirements under the bloc’s new Digital Services Act.
Europe introduced the landmark act last year, spurred by what the EU saw as a failure by tech giants to combat illegal content on their platforms. The rules include restrictions on using sensitive data such as race or religion for ad targeting, a ban on targeting ads to minors and a block on tactics that push people into consenting to online tracking.
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“The European Commission misinterpreted our user numbers and failed to acknowledge our mainly retail business model,” Robert Gentz, Zalando’s co-chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We simply do not belong in the VLOP category as defined by the DSA.”
The EU’s courts will be the new battleground for challenges to the bloc’s new digital rules, including the Digital Markets Act. That law designates companies “gatekeepers” if they have 45 million users in the EU, annual sales of at least €7.5 billion ($8.2 billion) within the EU over the past three years or an average market valuation of at least €75 billion in the previous year.
“The Digital Services Act is not just about hate speech, disinformation and cyberbullying,” Thierry Breton, the bloc’s digital chief, said. “It is also there to police the entry of illegal or unsafe products into the EU market, to protect our children against buying age inappropriate or unsafe goods, and to remove counterfeit merchandise from our ecommerce platforms.
