European Court of Justice interprets ‘operator’ in Russia Reg 833 broadcast prohibition & disagrees with European Commission’s FAQs

3 July 2026

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given a preliminary ruling in Case C-67/25 R, N & K v Staatsanwaltschaft Saarbrücken, in a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Saarbrücken Regional Court in Germany – Press Release.

The request was made in criminal proceedings against 3 people suspected of having breached Article 2f(1) of Regulation (EU) 833/2014 (a criminal offence in Germany under the Foreign Trade and Payments Act 2013). This prohibits ‘operators’ from ‘broadcasting or enabling, facilitating or otherwise contributing to broadcasting’ any content originating from people/entities listed in Annex XV of Reg 833.

The defendants broadcast videos from Russia Today Germany (RT Deutschland), a channel listed in Annex XV, on their website. The website was free to access, but it accepted donations and raised €60,000. The German Court asked the CJEU whether the meaning of ‘operators’, under Article 2f(1), includes natural persons who, through a website operated by them, only generate income in the form of voluntary contributions from third parties (donations or gifts).

The CJEU held that ‘operators’ need not be operating for profit to be within the definition. The Court’s reasoning follows Advocate General Norkus’ non-binding opinion on the case:

• The term ‘operator’ is not qualified as ‘economic’ in most of the language versions,

• The European Commission’s answers to FAQs saying that an ‘operator’ must exercise ‘commercial or professional activity’ is not legally binding, and restricts the scope of the provision too far,

• When the EU intends to limit the scope of sanctions to economic operators it does so expressly (eg as in Article 3r(4) Reg 833),

• Restricting the provision to economic operators would undermine the EU’s objective of protecting public order from misinformation. This is because non-commercial channels spreading misinformation would fall outside the provision, including websites that are funded through voluntary contributions and that are more difficult to trace.

The CJEU also clarified that Reg 833 makes no reference to the duration of broadcasting. Excluding short broadcasts from the prohibition would encourage circumvention of the prohibition by effectively allowing otherwise prohibited content to be broadcast in fragments.

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