At the heart of the issue is a supervisory fee introduced under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in 2022. 

The law requires major online platforms, 19 in total, including Meta, TikTok, Google, and Amazon, to pay 0.05% of their global net income. 

The money funds the European Commission’s monitoring of platform compliance with the DSA’s rules. But how the Commission arrived at each company’s bill is now under investigation.

Meta’s counsel, Assimakis Komninos, made it clear that the issue wasn’t about dodging regulation but about the logic, or lack thereof, behind the numbers. 

“The provisions in the Digital Services Act, or DSA, go against the letter and the spirit of the law, are totally untransparent with black boxes and have led to completely implausible and absurd results,” he told the five-judge panel in Luxembourg.

He objected the Commission’s choice to base the fee on the parent company’s revenue rather than that of the local subsidiary, a move he said distorted the true financial footprint of the entity being regulated. “Meta still does not know how the fee was calculated,” Komninos said.

Represented by lawyer Bill Batchelor, TikTok rejected the entire fee structure as inaccurate and discriminatory. “What has happened here is anything but fair or proportionate. The fee has used inaccurate figures and discriminatory methods,” Batchelor told the court.

According to him, TikTok’s supervisory fee was unfairly inflated by a method that counts the same users twice, once for using mobile, and again for desktop. 

“It inflates TikTok’s fees, requires it to pay, not just for itself, but for other platforms and disregards the excessive fee cap,” he argued. He also accused the Commission of overreaching by basing the cap on group-wide profits instead of earnings by the regulated unit.

In response, the Commission stood its ground. Lawyer Lorna Armati argued that the financial strength of a group cannot be divorced from the regulatory burden of its platforms. 

“When a group has consolidated accounts, it is the financial resources of the group as a whole that are available to that provider in order to bear the burden of the fee,” she told the court. 

Armati insisted that the process was legally sound and transparent enough for companies to understand. “The providers had sufficient information to understand why and how the Commission used the numbers that it did and there is no question of any breach of their right to be heard now, unequal treatment.”

The court is expected to rule in 2026 and the result would impact how the EU funds regulatory enforcement, and determine whether Big Tech continues to foot the bill under current terms. 

If Meta and TikTok succeed, it might force the Commission back to the drawing board, possibly lightening the financial load for other global platforms doing business in Europe.

The cases are officially registered as T-55/24 Meta Platforms Ireland v Commission and T-58/24 TikTok Technology v Commission.

Apple will pay $570 million, while Meta has been fined $228 million. Both companies have been accused of ignoring key provisions of the law meant to open up competition in the tech space.

Apple’s offence? Blocking app developers from telling users about better, cheaper deals outside its App Store. Meta’s? Forcing users to either accept targeted advertising or pay for a version of its platforms without ads. 

The Commission isn’t just punishing past behaviour, but demanding immediate change, giving both companies two months to comply or face daily penalties.

Apple has come out swinging. In a statement, the company said, “Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free.” 

Meta also said, “The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” it said. “This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model, effectively imposing a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service.”

From the Commission’s perspective, this is about power, not trade. They say these firms are taking over the space, setting their own rules and locking out competitors. That changes now.

The Apple ruling also questions the company for hindering sideloading — the ability to install apps from outside its store — and for imposing a Core Technology Fee that discourages developers from using alternative distribution channels. 

A separate probe into Apple’s browser restrictions has been closed after the company made changes, allowing users to pick their default browser more freely.

Meta, on the other hand, is being monitored after introducing a new ad model in late 2023 that lets users choose between personalised ads or paying for ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram. The EU argues that this model puts a price on privacy — something the DMA does not tolerate.

Interestingly, the fines could’ve been much higher. Under the DMA, the Commission can impose penalties of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover. The relatively lower figures reflect the short duration of the violations and a strategy focused more on compliance than maximum punishment — at least for now.

But this isn’t the end of it. Google’s ad business, Elon Musk’s X platform, and other tech giants remain under investigation. EU lawmaker Andreas Schwab has warned against letting up: “There can be no leeway in enforcement as this may also impact the importance of competition policy in general.”

Despite the diplomatic tension this might stir with Washington — especially given Donald Trump’s previous threats to retaliate against what he sees as EU hostility towards American tech — Brussels seems undeterred. For the EU, no company is above the rules. Not even Apple or Meta.

Apple and Meta now have two months to comply with the Commission’s orders or risk daily penalties.