Court of Justice of the European Union. Case C-421/24
On July 16, 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued a major clarification on the liability of hosting providers that enter into commercial partnerships with content creators. It held that a provider maintaining a structured economic relationship with a user cannot be regarded as a neutral hosting provider within the meaning of Article 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC. Google, the owner of YouTube, may therefore be held liable for videos posted by partner channels where those videos infringe national legislation.
1. Background: A Dispute Arising from a Sanction by the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (“AGCOM”)
The case originated in 2022, when AGCOM fined Google €750,000 and ordered it to remove several videos promoting online gambling, a practice strictly prohibited in Italy.
Google challenged that decision before the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio, invoking the hosting provider liability exemption laid down by the Italian transposition of Article 14 of the e-Commerce Directive. On appeal, the Italian Council of State referred two key questions to the CJEU:
- Does the Directive apply to the hosting of gambling advertisements, given that Article 1, § 5 excludes gambling activities from the scope of harmonization?
- Can Google benefit from the liability exemption where the content originates from partner channels that are subject to a prior review?
2. Video Hosting Remains Within the Scope of the Directive Despite the Presence of Gambling Advertisements
The Court first rules on whether the Directive applies to the case at hand. It holds that Article 1, § 5 must be given a broad interpretation: the exclusion covers gambling activities involving stakes, as well as activities intrinsically linked to such gambling, but it does not cover online hosting, which consists in the neutral storage of content provided by users, a reading that is consistent with the Advocate General’s Opinion.
Although the Court acknowledges the morally and financially harmful consequences of gambling and betting for individuals and for society, gambling falls outside European harmonization on account of the moral, religious, and cultural differences between Member States, which retain sovereign discretion in this area. Video hosting, however, is not an activity intrinsically linked to such gambling and therefore falls squarely within the scope of the Directive.
3. YouTube Partnerships: An Active Role by Google That Excludes It from the Protective Hosting Provider Regime
The CJEU then recalls that the liability exemption provided for in Article 14 applies only to intermediary providers whose activity is strictly technical, automatic, and passive, excluding any knowledge of or control over the information stored.
Here, the Court holds that Google cannot be regarded as a neutral intermediary. Through its algorithms, the platform exercises control over the content distributed, optimizes its visibility, and takes part in the creators’ commercial activity by sharing advertising revenue.
This ruling does not mean that YouTube becomes liable for all videos posted on its platform. Liability requires proof that YouTube had knowledge of or control over the content.
The Court goes on to specify that the conditions under which a commercial partnership is entered into imply knowledge of the essential content of the channel concerned, regardless of whether that knowledge results from an automated or a human review.
In the context of its commercial partnerships, Google carries out an in-depth review of channels (main theme, most-viewed or most recent videos, metadata, originality and quality of the content).
The purpose of that prior review is to determine eligibility for advertising revenue sharing. The platform thereby acquires essential knowledge of the content and actively contributes to promoting it. It can therefore no longer be regarded as a “neutral” hosting provider, a term that should be understood as passivity toward the content that creators upload to a platform.
The CJEU takes the view that Google could not have been unaware that certain partner channels had gambling as their main theme and were posting videos in breach of the Italian law decree. By playing an active role incompatible with Article 14, Google loses the benefit of the liability exemption and may be fined for the content distributed under those partnerships.
Manon Aurenche
Stagiaire département Médias / IP / Tech
