Amazon, X will likely avoid bill for enforcing EU's content rules
BNN Bloomberg
Amazon.com Inc. and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, appear poised to escape paying millions of euros in fees to enforce the EU’s strict new content rules, leaving other tech companies to pay a larger share.
The commission estimates it needs €45.2 million (US$47.7 million) to enforce the Digital Services Act this year. Very large online platforms — companies with more than 45 million monthly active users in Europe — are required to divvy up those costs based on the number of users they have.
However, the EU has adjusted the charges to ensure that companies don’t pay a fee above 0.05 per cent of their profit in 2022, meaning that companies that reported a loss don’t have to pay even if they have a large user base or represent a greater regulatory burden. This methodology results in X, formerly known as Twitter, and Amazon not contributing a penny, while Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. together would pay about €31 million — almost three-quarters of the total, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing information that’s not public.
These preliminary calculations could change before the commission announces the final totals at the end of November, according to the commission’s rules.
