Major online platforms face a yearly fee up to 0.1 percent of annual net income to cover the costs of monitoring compliance as per the new European Union, Reuters news report said.
EU countries and lawmakers are likely to finalize the Digital Services Act (DSA) later this month. Such a fee would be a first for the European Commission.
The amount of the annual supervisory fees shall be based on the estimated costs the Commission incurs in relation to its supervisory tasks under this Regulation, a EU document shows.
The fee shall not exceed 0.1 percent of the global annual net income of the provider of very large online platforms (or very large search engine) in the preceding financial year.
The fee should be proportionate to the size of the service as reflected by the number of its recipients in the EU. The Commission defines very large online platforms subject to the DSA as those with 45 million or more monthly active users.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager told lawmakers and member states last month that the fee could raise between 20 million euros ($22 million) and 30 million euros annually.
Not-for-profit providers of very large online platforms and very large online search engines will be exempt from the fees. This will benefit companies such as Wikipedia and research bodies.
A comparison could be made with national telecoms regulators and the European Securities and Markets Authority which impose fees on entities under their supervision.
“We want the implementation of the DSA to be a success, and support supervisory fees that are proportionate, backed by a detailed methodology, and commensurate with industry standards,” Alphabet’s Google said.
