Meta, TikTok win legal challenge over EU tech supervisory fees
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 10 Sep 2025
(Sharecast News) - Meta Platforms and TikTok won their challenge against the way European Union regulators calculated supervisory fees under the bloc's new tech rules on Wednesday, forcing officials to revise the methodology within a year.
The General Court in Luxembourg, the EU's second-highest tribunal, ruled that the European Commission used an improper legal basis when it set the levy, which was designed to cover the cost of monitoring compliance with the Digital Services Act.
Judges said the methodology should have been adopted through a delegated act rather than implementing decisions.
Meta and TikTok argued the calculation was flawed and disproportionate, inflating their payments and in TikTok's case leading to "discriminatory" results.
The companies said the formula relied on group-level revenues and inaccurate user data, while Commission lawyers countered that the approach was transparent and based on financial resources available across corporate groups.
The court's decision gave regulators 12 months to correct the process but does not require repayment of fees already collected for 2023.
A Commission spokesperson said the ruling confirmed the validity of the levy itself and only necessitated a "purely formal correction" in procedure.
The DSA, which took effect in late 2022, obliges very large online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content or face penalties of up to 6% of annual global turnover.
Alongside Meta and TikTok, the supervisory fee also applies to Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, Elon Musk's X, Snap Inc's Snapchat and Pinterest.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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