Once again platform liability: on the edge of the ‘Uber’ and ‘Airbnb’ cases

Abstract

Online platforms are considered as very powerful economic agents often tending to obtain oligopolistic or even monopolistic positions in the market. In this respect, the liability of platform operators has been constantly discussed among scholars. The sharpest issue in this respect is whether the platform operator may be held liable towards a platform customer for the violations caused by platform suppliers. Unfortunately, this issue has not been duly addressed yet. However, recently adopted CJEU judgements in Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi v Uber Systems Spain, SL (2017) and in Airbnb Ireland (2019) cases may be helpful in this regard. Although the mentioned judgments do not refer to liability issues directly, they still are indirectly linked to the latter. In this article I analyse the approaches provided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the mentioned cases and discuss their applicability to private disputes, in particular, to disputes on the liability of platform operators. I suggest that under the current regulatory regime established by European secondary legislation these approaches may be extrapolated to liability issues.

Uncovering Digital Platforms’ Ethics and Politics: The Case of Airbnb

“…Mainstream sharing platforms often make claims resembling the neutrality thesis to fend off criticism: that platforms are mere intermediaries/ marketplaces and therefore not responsible for the social and political consequences. For example, Airbnb and Uber invest efforts to be acknowledged by European courts as Information Society Services (ISS) instead of Material Services, which has significant legal and regulatory implications for their liability (Filatova-Bilous, 2021).…”