The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a landmark ruling that fundamentally reshapes how internet service providers can defend against infringement claims in Europe. The decision establishes strict new parameters around the "hosting defence," particularly concerning platforms that use algorithms to curate, rank, or recommend user-generated content. This judgment introduces significant uncertainty for e-commerce marketplaces, social media platforms, and other intermediaries that rely on automa
European UnionMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
On 16 June 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down an important decision on intermediary liability and the scope of the “hosting defence” under EU law.
The CJEU's full decision is available here.
The Court held that, when faced with infringement allegations, an internet service provider may only rely on the hosting defence where it plays a purely passive role over stored content.
In summary, the CJEU has ruled that:
- to rely on the hosting defence, the service provider must have neither knowledge nor control over the user’s information that is transmitted or stored - if the provider exercises control, the hosting defence will not be available to it; and
- beyond “the mere categorisation and indexing of information to improve its accessibility” (the scope of which activities will need to be interpreted), the use of an algorithm to determine in what manner and in what order of priority information is disseminated or not will amount to control,
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