Request for a preliminary ruling from the Curtea de Apel Cluj (Romania) lodged on 3 August 2023 – X v Russmedia Digital SRL, Inform Media Press SRL

(Case C-492/23, Russmedia Digital and Inform Media Press)

Language of the case: Romanian

Referring court

Curtea de Apel Cluj

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: X

Defendant: Russmedia Digital SRL, Inform Media Press SRL

Questions referred

Do Articles 12 to 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC ¹ also apply to a storage and hosting information service provider that makes available to users a website on which free or paid advertisements may be published, which claims that its role in publishing users’ advertisements is purely technical (making the platform available), but which, through the general terms and conditions of use of the website, indicates that it does not claim ownership over the content that is provided, published, uploaded or transmitted, yet retains the right to use the content, including by means of copying it, distributing it, transmitting it, publishing it, reproducing it, modifying it, translating it, transferring it to partners and removing it at any time, without the need for any reason for doing so?

Must Article 2(4), Article 4(7) and (11), Article 5(1)(f), Article 6(1)(a), Articles 7, 24 and 25 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 ¹ of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 and Article 15 of Directive 2000/31/EC be interpreted as requiring such a storage and hosting information service provider, which is the personal data controller, to verify before publishing an advertisement whether the person publishing the advertisement and the owner of the personal data referred to in the advertisement are the same person?

Must Article 2(4), Article 4(7) and (11), Article 5(1)(f), Article 6(1)(a), Articles 7, 24 and 25 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 and Article 15 of Directive 2000/31/EC be interpreted as requiring such a storage and hosting information service provider, which is the personal data controller, to verify in advance the content of advertisements published by users, in order to exclude advertisements which are potentially unlawful in nature or likely to infringe a person’s private and family life?

Must Article 5(1)(b) and (f), Articles 24 and 25 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 and Article 15 of Directive 2000/31/EC be interpreted as requiring such a storage and hosting information service provider, which is the personal data controller, to apply safeguards which prevent or limit the reproduction and redistribution of the content of the advertisements published through it?

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¹ Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’) (OJ 2000 L 178, p. 1).

¹ Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ 2016, L 119, p. 1).