Meta Platforms and TikTok challenged a European Union supervisory fee in court on Wednesday, calling it unfair and based on a flawed method.
The companies brought their arguments to the EU General Court, the second-highest court in Europe.
Under the Digital Services Act, passed in 2022, 18 large tech companies must pay a supervisory fee equal to 0.05% of their annual global net income. The money is meant to cover the cost of the European Commission’s oversight of the law.
Meta told judges it was not trying to avoid the fee but questioned how the Commission calculated it. The company said the levy was based on group-level revenue instead of that of the specific subsidiary.
Meta’s lawyer told the court the company still did not know how the fee had been worked out and called the process untransparent and unreasonable.
TikTok raised similar concerns, saying the fee used the wrong figures and unfair methods. Its lawyer said the company was paying not only for itself but also for other platforms.
He added that the Commission had double-counted users who switched between devices and set the fee cap based on group profits, which he said went beyond its legal powers.
A lawyer for the Commission defended the method and said using group financial resources was appropriate when companies have consolidated accounts. She said the providers had enough information to understand how the numbers were used and rejected claims of unfair treatment.
