Fashion vendor, Zalando battles EU over new rules for online services

 

BERLIN – Online fashion retailer Zalando is suing over the European Union’s classification that it is a “very large online platform” and related strict rules for the company under a new EU law.

The Berlin-based group supports the new legislation aimed at removing illegal content from the web, the so-called Digital Services Act (DSA), the company’s co-chairman Robert Gentz said on Tuesday.

“However, the European Commission misinterpreted our user figures and did not recognize our business model, which is mainly focused on retail,” he added. Zalando therefore filed a complaint against the classification with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.

The DSA aims to ensure that platforms remove illegal content from their sites more quickly than before and applies to online marketplaces such as Amazon, content sharing platforms such as YouTube, social media and search engines.

Large platforms will have to follow more rules than smaller ones. Businesses classified as very large platforms and search engines with more than 45 million active users per month are subject to particularly strict requirements.

These include submitting a risk assessment once a year with regard to harmful content and propose countermeasures. They also have to share data with authorities and researchers.
Zalando argues that the commission ignored their hybrid business model as the company also sells its own items, Gentz said, and as the DSA does not apply to retail but only to marketplaces, user figures should have been counted differently.

Additionally customers only see content on the website that is produced or reviewed by Zalando, he said, which is why Zalando does not belong to the category of “very large online platforms.”

A ruling is expected in a few months at the earliest.