Meta and TikTok have won a legal battle against EU
What's the story
Meta Platforms and ByteDance's TikTok have successfully challenged the European Commission in a case related to supervisory fees under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The companies were charged a fee of 0.05% of their annual global net income for the EU executive's cost of monitoring their compliance with DSA. However, they argued that the methodology used to calculate these fees was flawed and resulted in disproportionate charges.
Ruling
What did the court say?
The Luxembourg-based General Court ruled in favor of Meta and TikTok, giving EU regulators a year to revise their fee calculation methodology under a different legal act. The judges clarified that "that methodology... should have been adopted not in the context of implementing decisions but in a delegated act, in accordance with the rules laid down in the DSA."
Statement
'Purely formal correction required'
Responding to the court's decision, a Commission spokesperson said that the court has confirmed its fee methodology is sound, and sees no problem with the principle of the fee nor its amount. "The Court's ruling requires a purely formal correction on the procedure. We now have 12 months to adopt a delegated act to formalize the fee calculation and adopt new implementing decisions," they added.
Regulation
A look at the DSA
The DSA, which came into effect in November 2022, mandates large online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their sites. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 6% of their annual global turnover. Other firms paying the supervisory fee include Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, Google, Microsoft, X, Snapchat, and Pinterest.