Meta And TikTok Sue The European Union Over Digital Services Act Costs

JAKARTA - The feud between global tech giants and European regulators heats up after ByteDance's Meta Platforms and TikTok officially sued the European Union for the costs incurred in the framework of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The lawsuit was filed with the European Union General Court on Wednesday, June 11, where the two companies assessed that the annual costs set were disproportionate and based on wrong calculations.

Since its enactment in 2022, the Digital Services Act has imposed an obligation for twenty major online platforms and two major search engines to pay an annual surveillance fee of 0.05 percent of their global net income.

The purpose of this levy is to finance the activities of the European Commission in monitoring the platform's compliance with the new rules governing the digital world. However, Meta and TikTok raised their objections to the basis for calculating these costs.

In the trial, Meta's lawyer, Assimakis Komninos, delivered sharp criticism of the European Commission's approach, calling the cost calculation opaque and yielding unreasonable figures.

Komninos also highlighted that the Commission used the company group's overall revenue, instead of taking into account the revenues of subsidiaries operating in Europe. Meta admits that it does not try to avoid the obligation to pay, but questions the basic methodology that is considered flawed and unclear until now.

Meanwhile, TikTok also filed a similar lawsuit. His lawyer, Bill Batchelor, said that the calculations carried out by the Commission were not only accurate but also discriminatory.

TikTok accuses the Commission of doubling the number of users by counting users who access services through multiple devices as different individuals. In addition, TikTok claims that the costs charged include expenses that should not be their dependents and even exceed the maximum legally allowed limits.

The European Commission, through its lawyer Totaling Armati, denied the allegations. He emphasized that the approach used was legally legal, and the use of group revenue as the basis for the calculation was considered appropriate. Armati also stated that companies charged with fees had been given sufficient information to understand how the bill counts were calculated.

This case has the potential to be an important milestone in determining the future of digital regulation in Europe. Court decisions will have a major impact not only on Meta and TikTok, but also on the twenty other major platforms currently subject to similar levies.

This lawsuit is also a symbol of rising tensions between technology companies from the United States and European regulatory authorities that are increasingly aggressive in monitoring digital activity in their territory.

The court is expected to issue a verdict next year, although no official schedule has yet been announced. During the legal process, companies are still required to pay disputed costs. For the global technology industry, the final result of this lawsuit will be an important indicator of the relationship between digital regulatory policies and the financial responsibility of technology giants.