This working paper by Tobias Mast comments on the European Court of Justice’s recent Russmedia ruling and sets out the premises for a relationship between EU legal acts in the digital single market that respects fundamental rights.
Mast, Tobias (2026): Responsibility in the Platform Quadrangle. Balancing Rights between Content-Creating Users, Internet Service Providers, Affected Parties and Recipients. Also a Case Note on CJEU Russmedia, Case-492/23, [2025] ECLI:EU:C:2025:935. Hamburg: Hans-Bredow-Institut (Working Papers of the Hans-Bredow-Institut No. 81 | March 2026), https://doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.108734
Abstract
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) grants the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) absolute primacy over the E-Commerce Directive (ECD). From the former, the Court derives three obligations for online marketplaces: to screen all listings for sensitive data prior to publication, to verify the identity of the inserter where necessary, and to prevent the dissemination of published content by third parties as far as possible.
This judgment convinces neither in terms of its arguments nor its outcome, and its excessive tendency runs the risk of demolishing cornerstones of internet law.
This paper is a revised, updated and translated version of a case note originally written for the German-language law journal Juristenzeitung: T. Mast (2026): Verantwortung im Plattformviereck [2026] 81 JZ, 182–191; https://doi.org/10.1628/jz-2026-0069. It was prepared within the Stiftung Mercator–funded ’DSA Research Network.’