EU court annuls decision on DSA fees
An EU court has annulled European Commission decisions that imposed supervisory fees on Meta and TikTok.
The General Court has, however, maintained the effects of the decisions for another 12 months, giving the commission more time to bring the rules underpinning the fees into line with the court’s ruling.
The fees are linked to the (DSA), which sets out rules for service-providers designated as ‘very large online platforms’ – including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok.
Implementing decisions
To cover the costs of supervision of such platforms, the commission collects an annual fee based on the number of average monthly users of each service concerned.
In late 2023, it determined the fees for the three platforms by means of two implementing decisions.
Meta and TikTok had challenged the methodology used to calculate the fees, but the court did not find “any error affecting the obligation of the companies concerned to pay the supervisory fee for 2023”.
Methodology
, however, that the commission’s methodology was “an essential and indispensable element of the determination of the supervisory fee”.
As a result, the judges said, it should not have been adopted by means of two implementing decisions, but in a delegated act, in accordance with the rules laid down by the DSA.
The court said that its decision sought to enable the commission to establish the methodology for calculating the number of average monthly active recipients “in a manner that complies with the DSA” and to adopt new implementing decisions.
It warned, however, that this “provisional” arrangement could not last longer than 12 months from today’s (10 September) judgment.