Meta TikTok Win Challenge Against EU Tech Fees after Europe’s second-highest court ruled in their favor on Wednesday, September 10, 2025. The Luxembourg-based General Court found major flaws in the European Commission’s method for calculating supervisory fees under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Meta and ByteDance’s TikTok sued the Commission after they were told to pay a 0.05% fee on worldwide net income. The fee was designed to cover the EU’s cost of monitoring compliance with the DSA. Both firms argued that the calculation method was flawed and led to unfairly high charges.
The judges agreed. They ruled that the methodology should have been set through a delegated act, not an implementing decision. Regulators now have 12 months to design a new system. The court, however, did not order repayment of 2023 fees already collected.
The DSA, which came into force in November 2022, requires large online platforms to reduce illegal or harmful content. If they fail, they risk fines of up to 6% of global turnover.
Other companies facing the supervisory fee include Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, X, Snapchat, Booking.com, and Pinterest. The ruling is seen as a major victory for tech giants challenging EU rules.
