Meta and TikTok Win Court Battle Against European Commission Over "Unfair" Fees
Meta and TikTok sued the European Commission after it imposed a so-called technology regulatory fee on them, amounting to 0.05% of their annual global net revenue.
The Luxembourg court sided with the plaintiffs and found that the adopted fee calculation methodology was incorrect and that the European Union had 12 months to change it or adjust the rates.
The ruling in this case requires a purely formal correction to the procedure. We now have 12 months to adopt a delegated act to formalize the method of calculating fees and adopt new implementing decisions, the European Commission stated in a press release.
The funds paid by the portals were intended to cover the costs incurred by EU enforcement bodies monitoring their compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA) .
The annual fee, starting in 2023, was calculated based on the average monthly number of active users. Companies opposed this solution from the outset, viewing it as unfair and unrealistic.
They argue that the methodology adopted is flawed because it fails to treat every user as a potential source of profit. This resulted in disproportionately high fees.
The court recommended that the changes be adopted in the form of a delegated act within the next 12 months. The new methodology will be used to recalculate the fees collected for 2023 and 2024 and will serve as the basis for refunding any overpayments or applying them to subsequent years.
Journalist, graduate of political science at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. Associated with the media for over 40 years. After graduating in 1982, he worked on the editorial staff of "Gazeta Krakowska" and "Kurier Polski." A member of the editorial team of "Przegląd Techniczny." He has published articles in "Student," "Przekrój," and "Życie Literackie." Since the economic and political transformation, he has been associated with Reuters as a correspondent in Krakow for over 20 years. For the next three years, he conducted practical classes with students at the Institute of Journalism, Media, and Social Communication of the Jagiellonian University. Since December 2021, he has joined the PTWP Group and works for the WNP.PL portal. His main professional interests include economics and politics at the global level and the participation of Polish business in this field, particularly companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Winner of the "Ostra Pióra" award, granted for "spreading economic education" by the BCC, as well as the Golden Pear - a journalistic award of the Małopolska Branch of the Association of Journalists of the Republic of Poland.
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