The European Union’s General Court on Wednesday rejected Amazon’s attempt to overturn its designation as a “Very Large Online Platform” (VLOP) under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), reinforcing the EU’s power to impose its toughest obligations on the world’s biggest digital companies.
Amazon had asked the court to nullify the provision that places platforms with more than 45 million users in the highest-risk category. This classification triggers extensive compliance demands, including stepped-up efforts to curb illegal and harmful content, stronger consumer safeguards, robust reporting systems, and heightened oversight of marketplace risks.
The court dismissed the request in full, ruling that the European Commission had acted within its authority by including Amazon among the platforms required to follow the stricter rules. Judges said that even though Amazon is not a social media network and does not distribute opinions or news, it still has the capacity to expose millions of consumers to illicit or unsafe products, risks the DSA specifically aims to address.
The court emphasized that online marketplaces can “pose a risk to society” through the “dissemination of illegal content or infringing fundamental rights, including consumer protection.” It added that the obligations imposed are justified, even if they “entail significant financial burdens” for companies of Amazon’s scale.
Amazon criticized the decision and signaled plans to appeal to the EU Court of Justice.
“The Very Large Online Platform status was designed to address systemic risks posed by very large companies with advertising as their primary revenue and that distribute speech and information,” the company said. “The Amazon Store, as an online marketplace, does not pose any such systemic risks; it only sells goods, and it doesn’t disseminate or amplify information, views or opinions.”
That argument failed to sway the judges, who wrote that consumer-facing risks fall squarely within the purpose of the DSA. As long as a platform’s scale enables illegal listings, unsafe products, or deceptive commercial practices to reach users on a massive level, regulators may intervene, the ruling said.
The court also reviewed and dismissed all of Amazon’s remaining objections, leaving the company fully bound by the DSA’s strictest requirements.
The decision sits within a much wider regulatory push in Brussels that has been steadily tightening rules for dominant digital companies, many of which are headquartered in the United States. Over the past decade, the EU has launched high-profile investigations, competition cases, and data-protection actions against several U.S. firms, prompting recurring claims in Washington and Silicon Valley that Europe is disproportionately targeting American tech companies.
The DSA — alongside the EU’s Digital Markets Act, GDPR enforcement, and a series of competition rulings — has deepened that perception. European officials deny any bias, arguing that their focus is on market power, risk management, and consumer safety rather than nationality. Still, the pattern is hard to ignore: the vast majority of companies designated under the EU’s newest digital rulebooks are based in the United States.
Wednesday’s judgment reinforces that trajectory. It confirms that Brussels intends to hold online marketplaces to the same high standard as social media platforms and search engines, especially when their scale gives them influence over the goods that flow through the digital economy.
Amazon must now continue complying with enhanced obligations while it prepares its next legal challenge. Meanwhile, the ruling strengthens the Commission’s hand as it continues reshaping how the biggest global tech firms operate across Europe — and signals that any further attempts to push back on the DSA are likely to face difficult odds.
