Catenaa, Monday, September 15, 2025- Meta Platforms and TikTok secured a legal victory Wednesday after the European Union’s General Court ruled regulators must revise how they calculate supervisory fees under the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act.
The two companies challenged a 0.05% levy on annual global net income, imposed to cover the cost of monitoring compliance with online content rules.
They argued the methodology unfairly burdened profitable firms while exempting loss-making platforms with large user bases.
Judges agreed that the European Commission used the wrong legal process to establish the fee structure, ruling it should have been enacted under a delegated act rather than through implementing decisions.
The court gave regulators 12 months to fix the framework.
Despite the ruling, Meta and TikTok will not be reimbursed for 2023 fees already paid. The Commission said the judgment requires only a procedural correction, stressing that both the principle and the size of the levy remain valid.
Meta welcomed the decision, saying it would ensure a fairer distribution of costs among very large online platforms. TikTok said it would closely follow the drafting of the delegated act.
The Digital Services Act, in force since late 2022, compels major platforms such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, X, Snapchat and Pinterest to take stronger action against illegal and harmful online content, with potential fines of up to 6% of global turnover.
