Platforms are ISPs of specific importance. They play a vital role in life and economics of contemporary information society. Their market dominance often shapes also other markets such as accommodation, transportation or C2C sales. In that regards, this module tackles the following issues:

- legal status of platforms

- active obligations of platforms (for case-law, see legal obligations of ISPs in previous module)

- specific obligations of platforms in existing legislation

- drafted legislation for platforms

It is questionable whether platforms should benefit from ISP status and subsequent liability limitations. The CJEU interpreted the scope of the definition of an ISP in the following cases that are discussed at the seminar:

In order to have a full picture of the argumentation of the CJEU regarding the interpretation of a platform provider as a substantive service provider (rather than an ISP), it is worth looking at the AG opinion in the Uber case:

The role and importance of platforms is reflected also in specifically targeted EU legislation. We discuss its particular features aimed at platforms at the seminar:

By far the most important piece of legislation for the future of platforms (and information society as such) in the EU will be the Digital Services Act and the Digital Market Act: