Meta Platforms and TikTok on Wednesday won a lawsuit against the European Union over supervisory fees imposed on them under new technology rules. reports Reuters.
Meta and ByteDance-owned TikTok sued the European Commission after being slapped with a supervisory fee of 0.05% of annual global net revenue. These funds were supposed to cover the costs of EU executive bodies for monitoring companies’ compliance with the requirements of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The amount of the fee depended on the average number of active users per month for each company and on their financial results in the previous year. The General Court in Luxembourg ruled in favor of Meta and TikTok, giving EU regulators 12 months to correct the methodology by adopting another legal act.
“This methodology should not have been adopted in the context of executive decisions, but in a delegated act, in accordance with the rules set out in the DSA”, the judges said.
The Digital Services Act, which came into effect in November 2022, obliges major online platforms to do more to combat illegal content. Under the provisions of the DSA, companies can face a fine of up to 6% of their annual global turnover.
