Meta, TikTok sue EU over discriminatory tech fees

Meta and TikTok have taken the European Commission to court, challenging what they call an unfair and flawed EU tech fee.

The case opened Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg, Europe’s second-highest judicial body.

Both companies argued that the supervisory fee violates fairness, transparency, and the spirit of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA, enacted in 2022, imposes a 0.05% fee on the annual net income of 19 large digital platforms.

This fee is meant to fund the Commission’s regulatory oversight of compliance with the DSA.

Meta argued the fee calculation unfairly used group-wide revenues instead of revenues specific to its European subsidiary.

Meta lawyer Assimakis Komninos told judges the methodology used was opaque, implausible, and lacked any logical consistency.

He accused the Commission of using “black box” calculations that defy both the letter and spirit of the law.

TikTok’s lawyer Bill Batchelor criticized the EU’s approach as discriminatory and riddled with technical errors.

He claimed TikTok is forced to pay for other platforms and not just its own regulatory burden.

Batchelor said the fee calculation relied on double-counted user data, especially for users switching between mobile and desktop.

He insisted the method inflates TikTok’s fees, ignores legal limits, and punishes them for group profits.

TikTok also claimed the fee cap was wrongly based on group profits, exceeding the legal powers granted to regulators.

The Commission’s legal team pushed back, defending its approach and the fairness of using consolidated group accounts.

Commission lawyer Lorna Armati said the group’s financial resources determine its ability to shoulder regulatory costs.

She added that both Meta and TikTok received enough information to understand how their fees were calculated.

“There is no breach of transparency or unequal treatment,” Armati told the five-judge panel confidently.

The Commission maintained that its methodology was fair, consistent, and legally sound.

The two cases are titled T-55/24 Meta Platforms Ireland v Commission and T-58/24 TikTok Technology v Commission.

The General Court is expected to issue its ruling sometime in 2026, following months of deliberations.

Industry watchers say the case could set a major precedent for how tech regulation is funded in Europe.

If Meta and TikTok win, the EU may be forced to revamp how it charges Big Tech for regulatory oversight.

Until then, both companies continue to argue that the system punishes innovation and undermines digital competitiveness.

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