Under the Digital Services Act, the European Commission supervises providers of certain services, designated as very large platforms or very large online search engines because they exceed a significant minimum threshold of users in the EU. To cover regulatory costs, the Commission collects an annual fee from those providers. The fee is calculated based on the number of average monthly users of each service concerned.
In March 2023, the Commission adopted a delegated regulation supplementing the DSA by establishing the
detailed methodologies and procedures for the supervisory fees.
In April 2023, the Commission designated Facebook, Instagram and TikTok as very large online platforms. In November 2023, it issued two implementing decisions which decided the amount of the supervisory fee that each of the platforms had to pay for 2023.
In Case T-55/24 | Meta Platforms Ireland v Commission and T-58/24 |TikTok Technology v Commission, Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd and TikTok Technology Ltd each brought an action before the General Court contesting the decisions.
The General Court has annulled the implementing decisions, while maintaining their effects for a provisional period.
To decide the amount of the supervisory fee payable for 2023, the Commission calculated the number of average monthly active recipients of the services concerned based on a common methodology based on data provided by third-party operators and annexed to each implementing decision. However, as that methodology is an essential and indispensable element of the determination of the supervisory fee, it should have been adopted in a delegated act, in accordance with the rules laid down in the DSA, rather in an implementing decision.
However, as it did not find any error affecting the obligation of the companies concerned to pay the supervisory fee for 2023, the General Court temporarily maintained the effects of the annulled decisions. That measure seeks 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. However, the duration of the provisional arrangement may not exceed 12 months.
