Amazon has been designated a VLOP, defined under the Digital Services Act as being large enough to reach 10% of the EU’s population, or around 45m customers.

Amazon was among the first 17 companies to be designated a VLOP in late April, The online retailer has taken legal action to have the designation under the region’s Digital Services Act (DSA) removed. Facebook, Twitter, Apple’s App Store, Google Play, YouTube, Alibaba’s AliExpress and German retailer Zalando are all included, among others, in the list.

Amazon is the first US company to sue the EU over DSA rules, although Zalando filed a similar suit last month.

Being designated a VLOP means a platform has added responsibilities to protect its users from illegal content and products, hate speech and more. Amazon has stressed that its business model is based on retail rather than advertising. Speaking to The Register, a spokesperson said: “The DSA was designed to address systemic risks posed by very large companies with advertising as their primary revenue and that distribute speech and information.”

The company said it supports the European Commission’s goal to protect customers from illegal products and content, but does not consider itself a VLOP. The spokesperson added that other large EU retailers, which it said do more business in the region than Amazon, haven’t been given the designation.

Amazon believes the VLOP designation would mean the platform was unfairly singled out and forced to meet ‘onerous administrative obligations that don’t benefit EU consumers’. The company said it already protects customers from illegal products, and abides by other EU regulations. “VLOP rules are directed at other business models,” Amazon argued.

The European Commission said: “The scope of the DSA is very clear and is defined to cover all platforms that expose their users to content, including the sale of products or services, which can be illegal. For marketplaces as for social networks, very wide user reach increases the risks and the platforms’ responsibilities to address them.”

Amazon’s need to comply with DSA requirements should take effect in late August, by which time, all designated VLOPs ‘will need to adapt their systems, resources, and processes for compliance, set up an independent system of compliance … [and] complete the first annual risk assessment exercise to examine risks such as how illegal content might be disseminated through their service.’

Amazon would also be required to add further protections for users and extend protections for minors, ceasing targeted advertising to children and performing regular risk assessments on the negative mental health effects the platform may have on under-age users.

Amazon’s case will be decided by the EU General Court, where the complaint was filed.