Google wins trial against Germany by case “Gmail”
The search engine's email service was in a legal dispute, since the German authorities wanted to include it as a regulated telecommunication service
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that web-based email providers, such as Google Gmail, can not be considered an electronic telecommunication service and, therefore, are not subject to regulated telecommunication standards.
The sentence is a setback for Germany, whose Federal Telecommunications Network Agency has been trying to submit Gmail to national telecommunication laws since 2012.
These rules include, among other things, provisions for accessing data in criminal investigations.
The European court ruled that Internet-based email services “do not consist entirely or mainly in the transport of signals through electronic communications networks” and, therefore, do not need to be registered as a telecommunication service.
The telecommunications laws of the German region are based on the regulations established by the European Union (EU).
K. Tovar
Source: dpa
