Google won an important and rare victory Thursday when the European Court of Justice ruled that its Gmail service should not be treated as a telecommunications service, dismissing arguments made by Germany's telecoms regulator.

The ruling means that Google will not be required to register Gmail as a telecoms service and will escape the vast range of data protection and security obligations that apply to telecommunications companies in Germany.

The decision is a victory for Google and other so-called over-the-top (OTT) service providers that feared the burden of being treated the same way as telecommunications companies.