The General Court of the European Union has dismissed an action brought by Technius Ltd seeking to annul the European Commission’s decision designating its adult entertainment platform, Stripchat, as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The dispute centers on how the platform calculated its average monthly active recipients in the European Union to determine whether it crossed the 45 million threshold established by the DSA. In February 2023, Technius reported an average monthly user count of approximately 31.8 million, using data from marketing analytics service Similarweb but applying a deduction for bounced visits. Following an assessment, the European Commission concluded that this calculation underestimated user numbers and determined that Stripchat actually reached over 62 million unique visitors per month. Consequently, the Commission designated Stripchat as a VLOP in December 2023, subjecting it to heightened oversight, transparency requirements, and risk management obligations.

Technius challenged the decision before the General Court, contesting the reliability of the Commission’s underlying data and alleging a breach of the principle of legal certainty.

In its judgment, the General Court rejected Technius’s arguments in full, holding that the Commission provided adequate reasoning and transparently detailed its methodology. The Court noted that the Commission used the same Similarweb data source as Technius but correctly observed that Similarweb’s “unique visitors” metric already incorporates a filtering process for bounced visits. As a result, Technius’s additional reduction artificially suppressed its actual active recipient numbers.

The Court also addressed Similarweb’s subsequent methodological revision, which retroactively lowered Stripchat’s estimated monthly recipients for the relevant period to 37.3 million. The Court ruled that this post-decision adjustment does not invalidate the Commission’s action, as the legality of an administrative decision must be assessed based on the facts, law, and data available at the time of adoption.

Finally, the Court dismissed the claim regarding legal certainty, confirming that the absence of a single, formally prescribed calculation formula does not violate EU law. The Court concluded that the DSA provides sufficient guidance on the concept of active recipients, leaving platform operators responsible for choosing a reliable, compliant methodology.