Meta Platforms and TikTok have filed legal challenges against a European Union supervisory fee, claiming that the calculation method is flawed and disproportionate.

These cases were presented to the General Court of the European Union on June 11, 2025.

The fee, implemented under the Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2022, is set at 0.05% of a company’s annual worldwide net income.

It aims to cover the European Commission’s costs of monitoring compliance with the legislation. The calculation is based on the average number of monthly active users and the company’s profit or loss from the previous financial year.

Meta’s lawyer, Assimakis Komninos, questioned the transparency of the fee calculation. He said that it relies on group revenues instead of subsidiary earnings.

TikTok’s lawyer, Bill Batchelor, criticized the fee as “inaccurate and discriminatory.” He claimed that the Commission double-counted users accessing the platform on different devices.

The European Commission defended its methodology. Lawyer Lorna Armati said that using group profits was appropriate, as it reflects the financial resources available for the fee.

She also noted that the companies had been provided with sufficient information regarding the calculations.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The evolving economics of EU tech regulation

The DSA supervisory fee of 0.05% of global income represents a new approach to funding tech regulation, distinct from previous EU frameworks that used different models.

The EU has historically funded regulatory oversight through various mechanisms, with the Digital Services Act introducing this specific fee structure for very large online platforms (VLOPs) with over 45 million users 1.

This fee model reflects the EU’s broader strategy to make platforms bear the costs of their own regulation, similar to how financial institutions fund their supervisory authorities in many jurisdictions.

What makes this case significant is that it challenges the methodology rather than the principle itself. Meta acknowledged it wasn’t trying to avoid paying “its fair share” but questioned the calculation method, highlighting the complex balance between regulatory funding needs and fair burden distribution.

The legal challenge comes amid findings that EU fines against U.S. tech companies totaled $2.03 billion in 2023 alone, raising questions about the cumulative financial impact of the EU’s regulatory framework on primarily American platforms 2.