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ARTICLE · 08 DECEMBER 2025

GDPR Liability Of Online Marketplaces For User-Published Advertisements

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On 2 December 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") in X v Russmedia and Inform Media Press (Case C-492/23) held that the operator of an online marketplace acts as a ‘controller' under the GDPR ...

IrelandPrivacy
Davinia Brennan
Davinia Brennan
Marie McGinley
Marie McGinley
Anne-Marie Bohan
Anne-Marie Bohan
Sarah Jayne Hanna
Sarah Jayne Hanna
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On 2 December 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") in X v Russmedia and Inform Media Press (Case C-492/23) held that the operator of an online marketplace acts as a 'controller' under the GDPR in respect of the processing of personal data contained in user-posted advertisements published on their platform, and must comply with their data protection obligations in respect of such publication.

The judgment confirms that the liability exemptions under the e-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) (or its successor, the Digital Services Act ("DSA") (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065), do not override the obligations of the operator of an online marketplace under the GDPR. In particular, the CJEU held that the operator must identify, before publication, advertisements that contain sensitive data in terms of Article 9(1) GDPR, and verify that the user-advertiser is actually the person whose sensitive data appears in the advertisement, or that the advertiser has the

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