Court of Justice 10 September 2020, C-62/19 (Star Taxi App SRL v Unitatea Administrativ Teritorială Municipiul Bucureşti prin Primar General and Consiliul General al Municipiului Bucureşti.)

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Advocate General Szpunar opines that a smartphone application connecting taxi passengers directly with licensed taxi drivers constitutes an 'Information Society service' within the meaning of Article 2(a) of Directive 2000/31 read with Article 1(1)(b) of Directive 2015/1535, provided it is not inherently linked to the underlying transport service in the manner established in Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi (C-434/15). The AG further opines that Article 4(1) of Directive 2000/31 does not preclude applying to such a provider an existing authorisation scheme that also governs economically equivalent non-electronic services, though Articles 9 and 10 of Directive 2006/123 require that any such scheme be justified by an overriding reason of public interest and based on criteria proportionate and technologically suited to the applicant's service. The AG additionally opines that the municipal decision at issue (Decision No 626/2017 of Bucharest Municipal Council) does not constitute a 'technical regulation' requiring notification to the Commission under Article 5 of Directive 2015/1535, as it is an act of a local authority not listed among Romania's notified regulatory bodies and the underlying national law is not specifically aimed at Information Society services.AI