Meta, TikTok challenge EU's Big Tech fee; call it 'unfair and disproportionate'

Meta
and
TikTok
have taken the
to court over a fee which they claim is unfair and based on flawed calculations. Speaking before Europe's second-highest court on Wednesday, the two tech giants argued that the EU's supervisory levy under the
Digital Services Act
(DSA) is both disproportionate and lacking in transparency.
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The law, which came into effect in 2022, requires 19 large online platforms to pay a fee—up to 0.05% of their annual global net income—to help fund the European Commission's work overseeing their compliance with digital rules.
What Meta and TikTok said about Europe's DSA
Stating that the company is not trying to avoid paying the fees, Meta's lawyer questioned the Commission's method for calculating the fee. In a General Court in Luxembourg, he said it was wrongly based on the overall group's revenue, not the revenue of the EU-based subsidiary, and that the company still doesn't know exactly how the final amount was reached.
TikTok's lawyer echoed similar concerns, calling the fee 'unfair and disproportionate.' He said the method used inflated TikTok's payment and even required the company to help cover the cost for other platforms. He also accused the EU of counting the same user more than once if they switch between devices, which he said led to double-counting.
Both companies argued that the Commission went beyond its legal powers by using group-level profits to calculate the cap for the fee.
What the European Commission argue
In response, the European Commission's lawyer defended the system, saying that when a company files consolidated financial reports, it's reasonable to use group-level financial data. She also said that companies had access to enough information to understand how the fee was determined and that there was no violation of their rights.

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