YouTube May Lose EU Liability Shield Over Partnered Gambling Channels

Europe’s top court ruled Thursday that Google cannot automatically claim liability protection for gambling advertising videos posted by YouTube creators who have entered commercial partnerships with the platform. The decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) stems from a four-year legal fight over a 750,000-euro fine ($854,250) that Italy’s communications regulator, AGCOM, imposed on Google in 2022 for hosting videos that promoted online gambling in violation of the country’s strict advertising ban.

The ruling could have ripple effects far beyond one Italian dispute, potentially reshaping how social media platforms are held accountable for content posted by creators who share in ad revenue rather than by the platforms themselves.

How the Case Reached Luxembourg

The dispute traces back to July 2022, when AGCOM fined Google Ireland after determining that a content creator had used five YouTube channels to post hundreds of videos promoting unlicensed online gambling operators. According to regulators, the channels also encouraged viewers, including minors, to submit footage of their winnings in exchange for cash rewards. AGCOM ordered Google to remove 630 videos tied to the campaign and separately fined the content creator 700,000 euros.

The videos ran afoul of Italy’s 2018 Dignity Decree, one of the strictest gambling advertising regimes in Europe, which bans virtually all direct and indirect promotion of games or bets offering cash prizes across any medium.

Google challenged the fine before Italy’s Lazio Regional Administrative Court, arguing it was shielded from liability under the European Union’s e-commerce rules, which generally protect hosting providers from responsibility for third-party content. That court initially sided with Google and overturned the fine. AGCOM then appealed to the Council of State, Italy’s highest administrative court, which referred the underlying legal questions to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling before deciding the case on its merits.

The core issue before the CJEU was twofold: whether the liability exemption for hosting providers under the EU’s e-commerce directive even applies to online gambling advertising in the first place, and if so, whether Google could still claim that protection given its commercial partnership with the content creator through the YouTube Partner Program.

What the Court Decided

In November, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar issued a non-binding opinion concluding that hosting activity, such as storing gambling advertisement videos, does fall within the scope of the e-commerce directive, since gambling is only excluded from EU harmonization with respect to the offering of gambling services, not the storage of promotional content. Szpunar’s opinion held that YouTube could still be treated as a passive, neutral intermediary as long as it did not actively review, select, or shape the content in question.

The full court’s judgment Thursday went further than that preliminary opinion suggested. The CJEU found that Google cannot rely on the liability shield simply because a channel operator uploaded the videos independently. Judges said platforms lose the exemption when an operator reviews a channel’s main theme, its most-viewed or newest videos, and associated metadata for the purpose of entering into a commercial partnership agreement, since that level of engagement goes beyond a strictly technical, automated, and passive hosting role.

Google had maintained throughout the proceedings that it functioned only as a neutral technical host with no control over what creators uploaded, and that the monetization arrangement under the YouTube Partner Program should not strip away its legal protections. The court’s decision rejects that framing when a partnership agreement is in place, though it stopped short of ruling on the underlying merits of Italy’s fine, which now returns to the Italian courts for a final determination based on the CJEU’s guidance.

Why the Ruling Matters Beyond Italy

The case, formally listed as C-421/24 AGCOM, is being watched closely by regulators and platforms across the bloc because it touches on a tension that has grown alongside the creator economy: platforms increasingly share ad revenue with the people who upload content, blurring the line between passive hosting and active publishing. Big Tech companies have repeatedly leaned on the e-commerce directive’s hosting exemption to fend off claims tied to user-generated content, a defense that has taken on new urgency amid broader concerns about how social platforms affect younger users.

For the online gambling and sportsbooks industry specifically, the ruling reinforces that national advertising restrictions, like Italy’s near-total ban, remain enforceable even against major platforms that argue they are merely providing infrastructure. Companies that rely on affiliate marketing and YouTube Partner Program-style arrangements to promote betting products may now face closer scrutiny over how much editorial or business control they exercise over that content.

With the case sent back to the Italian courts, the practical outcome for Google’s original fine is still pending. But the CJEU’s guidance sets a clearer legal standard for when platforms forfeit hosting protections, a standard that regulators in other EU member states, many of which maintain their own gambling advertising restrictions, are likely to invoke in future disputes involving online casinos and betting operators that rely on social media reach to find new customers.