Meta and TikTok have won a significant legal challenge against the European Commission after the EU’s General Court struck down the supervisory fees they were ordered to pay under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
In two judgments delivered in Luxembourg, the Court annulled the Commission’s 2023 decisions that set the annual supervisory fees for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. The judges found that Brussels had used the wrong legal procedure when adopting the methodology for calculating the charges. While the principle of requiring major platforms to pay for regulatory oversight was not invalidated, the Commission now has twelve months to adopt a new legal framework that complies with EU law. Until then, the annulled decisions will continue to apply provisionally, meaning the companies must still pay the fees in the short term.
The DSA, which came into force in November 2022, places strict obligations on “very large online platforms” such as Meta, TikTok, Google and Amazon to better tackle illegal and harmful content or risk fines of up to six percent of global turnover. To finance this supervision, the Commission collects annual contributions based on the size of each company’s user base and financial results. In 2023, Meta and TikTok were charged fees amounting to 0.05 percent of their worldwide net income, a calculation both companies argued was unfair. Meta in particular claimed that profitable firms were being forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs, while loss-making rivals with equally large user bases were exempt.
The General Court agreed that the Commission’s methodology was flawed on procedural grounds. According to the judges, the method used to calculate monthly active users—an essential element of the fee—should have been introduced through a delegated act under the DSA rather than through implementing decisions. The Court stressed that while this error required annulment, the obligation to pay supervisory fees for 2023 remained valid until a proper legal framework is adopted, with the temporary arrangement limited to twelve months.
That methodology… should have been adopted not in the context of implementing decisions but in a delegated act,” the Court wrote
The Commission sought to downplay the ruling, describing it as a technical correction. A spokesperson said the Court had confirmed the substance of the fee system and that the ruling “requires a purely formal correction on the procedure.” The EU executive now plans to adopt a delegated act to formalise the methodology and issue new implementing decisions.
TikTok welcomed the judgment, saying it would closely follow the development of the new rules. Meta also praised the decision, reiterating its criticism of the current system and expressing hope that the flaws in the methodology would be fixed.
“We’ll closely follow the development of the delegated act,” – TikTok commented.
Currently, companies that record a loss don’t have to pay, even if they have a large user base or represent a greater regulatory burden, leaving others to pay a larger and disproportionate amount,” a spokesperson said. “We look forward to the flaws in the methodology being addressed – Meta seized on the Court’s reasoning to push for a fairer system
The outcome has wider implications beyond Meta and TikTok. Other very large online platforms and search engines, including Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, Google, Microsoft, Elon Musk’s X, Snapchat and Pinterest, are also subject to the supervisory fee and could be affected by the Commission’s upcoming reforms.
The Commission still has the option to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice, but for now the General Court’s decision forces regulators to revisit the foundations of how the EU funds its new digital rulebook.
