Google, Meta and Tik Tok win Austrian court fight

BigTech giants, Google, Meta and Tik Tok have won their fight today against the Austrian courts that required them to delete hate speech or face fines of up to US$10.69 million. The Austrian law, KOPl-G obliges BigTech to publish created a new obligation on firms to remove illegal user-generated content and was enacted prior to the European Union’s, Digital Services Act which requires large online platforms such as YouTube, Amazon Store and AliExpress to do more to tackle illegal and harmful online content, or risk fines up to 6% of their annual turnover.

The three BigTech giants challenged the Austrian law argued that since their European headquarters are in Ireland, they should be only subject to Irish rules and therefore the Austrian law did not apply. The Austrian court sought advice from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which agreed with the companies. As the CJEU is the EU’s highest court, the decision cannot be appealed by the Austrian authorities.

The case is called C-376/22 - Google and Others.