REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL ​​on the overall annual costs incurred for the fulfilment of the Commission’s tasks pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 in the period from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2024 and the total amount of the annual supervisory fees charged pursuant to Article 6(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127 in 2024​​
Date: 2025-03-31
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: Internet, administrative supervision, cloud computing, consumer protection, costing, digital single market, dissemination of information, information society, provision of services, service

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 31.3.2025  COM(2025) 150 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the overall annual costs incurred for the fulfilment of the Commission’s tasks pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 in the period from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2024 and the total amount of the annual supervisory fees charged pursuant to Article 6(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127 in 2024   
 
 
1.  Introduction 

(1)  This report is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council in the context of the enforcement 
of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (1) – the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA lays down harmonised 
rules  applicable  to  intermediary  service  providers  to  ensure  a  safe,  predictable,  and  trusted  online 
environment  in  the  internal  market.  It  sets  out  basic  obligations  applicable  to  all  providers  of 
intermediary  services,  as  well  as  additional  obligations  for  providers  of  hosting  services  and,  more 
specifically, providers of online platforms, very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online 
search engines (VLOSEs). It also establishes a system of supervision and enforcement of these rules by 
the Commission and Member States. 

(2)  The DSA entrusts the Commission with the exclusive competence to designate and supervise VLOPs 
and  VLOSEs,  so  as  to  enforce  the  DSA  obligations  with  respect  to  these  designated  services.  The 
Commission  is  also  mandated  to  coordinate  and  develop  expertise  and  capabilities  at  Union  level 
regarding  the  supervision  of  systemic  and  emerging  issues  in  relation  to  VLOPs  and  VLOSEs. 
Moreover, there are additional tasks assigned to the Commission that relate to the size and intrinsic 
cross-border and/or pan-EU reach of such designated services. 

(3)  To ensure the necessary resources for the Commission to effectively carry out the supervisory tasks 
entrusted  to  it  under  the  DSA  in  terms  of  staffing,  expertise,  and  financial  means,  Article  43  DSA 
requires the Commission to charge an annual supervisory fee to each provider of VLOP or VLOSE, 
subject to the conditions provided for in that Article. 

(4)  Article 43(7) DSA provides for the preparation of an annual report by the Commission, addressed to the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council,  as  a  way to  provide  accountability  and  transparency  to  those 
institutions in respect of the actions of the Commission under the DSA, which shall be published on the 
Commission’s website pursuant to Article 8(1) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127 
(2). In particular, the report must include information on the total amount of the supervisory fees charged 
to the providers of VLOPs and VLOSEs in the preceding year and on the overall amount of the costs 
incurred by the Commission for the fulfilment of its tasks under that Regulation, as established in Article 
8 of that Delegated Regulation. 

(5)  Accordingly, the present report provides an overview of the costs incurred by the Commission in 2024 
for the fulfilment of its tasks under the DSA.  It notably spells out the specific costs incurred for the 
fulfilment of the tasks referred to in Article 43(2) DSA, which are those covered with the supervisory 
fees charged in 2023. In addition, this report provides information on the total amount of the supervisory 
fees charged in 2024 to cover the costs to be incurred by the Commission for the fulfilment of its tasks 
pursuant to the DSA in 2025 and on the payments, as well as on-going court proceedings, related to the 
implementing  decisions  establishing  the  amount  of  the  annual  supervisory  fees  in  respect  of  each 
provider. 

2.  Costs incurred by the Commission for the fulfilment of its tasks pursuant to the DSA in 2024 

(6)  This report covers the reporting period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024.  

(7)  This period covers the general entry into application of the DSA on 17 February 2024, the setup and 
operation  of  the  European  Board  for  Digital  Services  (the  ‘Board’),  the  designation  of  3  additional 

(1) Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single 
Market for Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act) (OJ L 277, 27.10.2022, p. 
1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj). 
(2) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127 of 2 March 2023 supplementing Regulation (EU) 
2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council with the detailed methodologies and procedures 
regarding the supervisory fees charged by the Commission on providers of very large online platforms and very 
large online search engines (OJ L 149, 9.6.2023, p. 16, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2023/1127/oj).   

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VLOPs by July 2024, which add to the 20 VLOPs and 2 VLOSEs designated by December 2023, and a 
number  of  enforcement  actions  on  suspected  DSA  infringements  relating  to  disinformation  and 
dissemination of illegal content, as well as the protection of minors and electoral processes. During that 
period, approximately 100 requests for information were sent to providers of VLOPs and an additional 
9 formal proceedings were opened against several providers, out of a total of 10 formal proceedings 
opened since 2023 until the end of 2024. Moreover, for the first time in the enforcement of the DSA, 
the Commission has made commitments submitted by one provider in the context of DSA proceedings 
legally binding upon it. (3) 

(8)  During that period, the Commission continued reinforcing the necessary internal structures and allocated 
the  appropriate  human,  operational  and  administrative  resources  for  an  effective  enforcement  of  the 
DSA  and  the  fulfilment  of  its  tasks.  This  included  recruiting  staff  and  seconded  national  experts 
specialised  in  all  areas  of  work  covered  by  the  DSA,  developing  the  necessary  IT  systems,  and 
contracting supervisory capacity-building activities and support. 

(9)  As regards human resources, the Commission increased the number of staff for the execution of DSA 
enforcement tasks following the increase in monitoring compliance activities. In the reporting period, 
51  staff  members  were  recruited,  including  legal  officers,  policy  officers,  data  scientists/technology 
specialists,  communications  officers,  budget  and  audit  specialists  and  project  managers.  50  of  those 
members joined the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG 
CNECT)  and  the  remaining  one  joined  the  Legal  Service,  giving  support  to  DG  CNECT’s  tasks  in 
relation to DSA enforcement. 

(10)  The  overall  costs  incurred  by  the  Commission  for  all  DSA  enforcement  tasks,  including  the  tasks 
referred to in Article 43(2) DSA (4) and other tasks fulfilled pursuant to other articles of the DSA during 
the reporting period, by cost categories, are the following (5): 

Total incurred costs  
Human resources expenditure  
Operational and administrative expenditure  

EUR 50,11 million  
EUR 15,23 million  
EUR 34,87 million  

(11)  The  split  of  the  expenditure  between  the  tasks  referred  to  in  Article  43(2)  DSA  and  all  other  DSA 
enforcement tasks in addition to the details per cost category and indication of any surplus or deficit 
generated in 2024 are presented in sections 2.1 to 2.3 below.  

2.1  Costs incurred for tasks related to Article 43(2) DSA  

(12)  Within the overall amount of costs referred to in paragraph (10) of this report, the specific expenditure 
incurred  by  the  Commission  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  tasks  referred  to  in  Article  43(2)  DSA  in  the 
reporting period, and therefore covered by the supervisory fees charged in 2023, are as follows: 

Costs incurred for tasks relating to Article 43(2) DSA  
Human resources expenditure  
Operational and administrative expenditure  

Supervisory capacity-building activities and support 

EUR 45,75 million  
EUR 12,58 million  
EUR 33,16 million  

EUR 13,97 million  

(3) Press release of the European Commission of 5 August 2024: TikTok commits to permanently withdraw TikTok 
Lite Rewards. 
(4) Article 43(2) DSA refers to costs related to the designation pursuant to Article 33, to the set-up, maintenance 
and operation of the database pursuant to Article 24(5) and to the information sharing system pursuant to Article 
85, to referrals pursuant to Article 59, to supporting the Board pursuant to Article 62 and to the supervisory tasks 
pursuant to Article 56 and Section 4 of Chapter IV.   
(5) The figures presented across this document are reported in EUR million with two decimals, without any 
rounding technique applied. For this reason, some totals may not correspond with the sum of the separate figures 
presented in the report. 

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Administrative agreements 
External experts 
Databases, Digital tools, and IT systems  
Board activities, administrative expenditure for recruitment and 
missions 

EUR 10,46 million  
EUR 4,51 million  
EUR 3,58 million 
EUR 0,62 million  

a.  Human resources expenditure 

(13)  The  yearly  calculation  of  human  resources  expenditure  has  been  performed  on  the  basis  of  average 
annual  costs  per  full-time  equivalent  (‘FTE’)  employees,  including  pro-rata  average  overhead 
expenditure and applicable social contributions related to these human resources, in line with Article 
2(2),  point  (a)  of  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2023/1127 (6).  For  the  calculation  of  the 
FTEs,  the  Commission  took  into  account  only  the  effective  working  time  of  the  staff  members  in 
activities relating to the supervisory tasks referred to in Article 43(2) DSA and in proportion to the time 
they have worked for the Commission in 2024. 

(14)  Despite the recruitment of 51 new staff members during 2024, the recruitment procedures took longer 
than foreseen and resulted in a yearly lower average amount of FTEs than forecasted, amounting to a 
total  of  approximately  81  FTEs  (including  a  total  of  approximately  31 FTE  officials  and  temporary 
agents, 43 FTE contract agents and 7 FTE seconded national experts) for an overall amount of EUR 
12,58 million. (7) 

b.  Operational and administrative expenditure 

(15)  The calculation of the operational and administrative expenditure takes into account the costs pursuant 
to Article 2(2), point (b) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127 and the non-exhaustive 
list of items of Annex I to that Delegated Regulation, in the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 
2024, which are necessary for the fulfilment of the tasks referred to in Article 43(2) DSA.  The total 
operational and administrative costs in the reporting period amount to EUR 33,16 million. The activities 
performed under this cost category are described in the following paragraphs. 

(16)  The supervisory capacity building activities and support (EUR 13,97 million) include: 

̶ 

̶ 
̶ 

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ten service contracts for support relating to the following: monitoring of compliance, adult content 
platform services, election risk management, the DSA transparency database, market intelligence 
and  evidence  gathering,  media  freedom,  app  stores  ecosystems,  minors’  protection  (EUR 
13,91 million), 
the organisation of a stress test on European elections in April 2024 (EUR 0,04 million), 
preparatory  activities  on  access  to  data  for  researchers  based  on  Article  40  DSA  (EUR 
0,01 million), and 
reimbursement of travel expenses to technical experts (EUR 0,001 million). 

(17)  The  administrative  agreements  (EUR  10,46 million)  include  the  following  three  signed  by  DG 

CNECT with: 

(6) The applicable average costs per FTE are annually calculated by the Directorate-General for Budget (‘DG 
BUDG’) in the context of the preparation of the Legislative Financial Statement and charge backs. Such average 
costs for the year 2024, already including pro-capita average operating expenditure of buildings and IT and 
already increased by the applicable provision for social contributions (22,2%), amounted to EUR 217 516 for 
officials and temporary agents, EUR 116 090 for Contract Agents and EUR 120 978 for Seconded National 
Experts. 
(7) The number of FTEs reported in section 2.1 of this report does not represent the total number of Commission 
staff members working on DSA in 2024. It strictly includes the effective working time of staff members covered by 
Article 43(2) DSA tasks and the proportion of time they worked on those tasks during that year, with the 
recruitments gradually increasing from Q1 to Q4. 

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The European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
(EUR  7 million)  for  the  provision  of  technical  and  scientific  support  in  investigations  and 
enforcement policies, 
The Directorate-General for Digital Services (DG DIGIT) (EUR 3,14 million) for the provision of 
specialized IT services and cloud resources, and IT support for the DSA Data Access Portal and 
the information sharing system pursuant to Article 85 DSA, and  
The Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) (EUR 0,32 million) for the provision of IT 
capacity  and  support  concerning  case  management  and  compliance  supervision  of  VLOPs  and 
VLOSEs. 

(18)  The expenditure in external experts (EUR 4,51 million) concerns service contracts for: 

̶ 

IT  experts  (EUR   4,39  million)  under  the  supervision  of  DG  CNECT,  performing  tasks  of 
development  and  maintenance  of  the  information  system  pursuant  to  Article  85  DSA  and  the 
database  pursuant  to  Article  24(5)  DSA.  During  the  reporting  period,  external  experts  were 
contracted in the following domains: back-end and front-end development; business intelligence; 
database, application, cloud, and enterprise architecture; cloud operations; data science; testing; 
information and document management; IT security; IT quality assurance; support management; 
system engineering and integration; user experience; web operations; and business analysis.  
̶  Agency staff (interim) (EUR 0,12 million) with legal, policy, data science and secretariat profiles, 
providing support to DG CNECT staff on the enforcement tasks referred to in Article 43(2) DSA. 
During the reporting period, 14 agency staff were contracted. 

(19)  The  expenditure  in  databases,  digital  tools,  and  IT  systems  (EUR  3,58 million)  includes  the 
acquisition of specialised equipment for compliance monitoring and data rooms and licenses for existing 
commercialised software and databases relating to the implementation of the supervisory tasks pursuant 
to Article 43(2) DSA. It also covers the provision of IT services for the set-up and implementation of 
the DSA Information Sharing System pursuant to Article 85 DSA, the DSA Whistleblower tool, (8) and 
an accounting IT system for the registration, control and monitoring of the expenditure covered by the 
supervisory fee. 

(20)  The  expenditure  in  Board  activities  (EUR  0,37 million)  includes  the  organisation  of  five  in-person 
meetings out of the twelve meetings held by the Board and one in-person meeting out of the twenty-
nine  meetings  held  by  the  Board’s  Working  Groups  during  2024, (9)  as  well  as  capacity  building 
activities in the form of a training addressed to the Digital Services Coordinators. 

(21)  The administrative expenditure for recruitment includes the costs incurred for the recruitment of 
Commission staff working on supervisory tasks pursuant to Article 43(2) DSA, such as reimbursement 
of travel expenses to participate in the selection processes and onboarding costs (EUR 0,18 million). 

(22)  The expenditure in supervisory missions (EUR 0,06 million) includes the costs for Commission staff 
to  participate  in  missions  during  2024  on  activities  relating  to  the  direct  supervision  of  VLOPs  and 
VLOSEs and to the development of expertise and capacity building on systemic and emerging risks. 

2.2  Costs incurred for DSA enforcement tasks that are not related to Article 43(2) DSA  

(23)  The differences in the costs for all DSA enforcement tasks and for only the tasks referred to in Article 
43(2) DSA are explained by the following expenditure paid by Union budget appropriations and not by 
the external assigned revenues resulting from the annual supervisory fee: 

(8) https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-whistleblower-tool 
(9) The European Board for Digital Services has set up 8 Working Groups supporting the Board's mission: 
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-board-working-groups. 

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Costs incurred for tasks not relating to 
Article 43(2) DSA 
Human resources expenditure 
Operational and administrative expenditure 

EUR 4,35 million 

EUR 2,64 million 
EUR 1,70 million 

(24)  The  human  resources  expenditure  of  EUR  2, 64  million  is  due  to  the  fulfilment  of  tasks  such  as 
monitoring of national legislation and structures, general policy guidance, supporting enforcement vis-
à-vis  non-designated  providers  and  other  regulatory  tasks  not  related  to  the  DSA  supervisory  tasks 
referred to in Article 43(2) DSA. 

(25)  The administrative and operational expenditure of EUR 1,70 million is due to the cost of the following 

expenditure not related to the DSA supervisory tasks referred to in Article 43(2) DSA: 

̶ 
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the development of a threat-to-life notifications tool (EUR 1,24 million), 
the  organisation  of  a  workshop  on  the  protection  of  minors  in  October  2024  (EUR 
0,22 million), 
three service contracts for studies relating to online advertising, monitoring compliance of 
Articles 26, 28 and 39 DSA and trusted flaggers (EUR 0,18 million),  
external experts (EUR 0,01 million), and 
non-supervisory missions (EUR 0,03 million). 

2.3  Surplus or deficit 

(26)  Pursuant to Article 8(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127, this report must indicate 
any costs incurred during the reporting period that exceeded the amount of estimated costs for the same 
period, or any surplus, as applicable. 

(27)  The comparison of the estimation of costs performed in 2023 for the calculation of the supervisory fees 
charged on that year and the actual expenditure incurred in 2024 in relation to the tasks referred to in 
Article 43(2) DSA shows that the expenditure in human resources was EUR 6,823 million lower than 
estimated,  while  operational  and  administrative  expenditure  was  EUR  7,338 million  higher.  This 
resulted in a deficit of EUR 0,514 million. 

Forecasted in 
SWD (2023) 242 
(million) 

Actual 
expenditure in 
2024 (million) 

Surplus (+)/ 
Deficit (-) 
(million) 

EUR 45,243 
EUR 19,413 
EUR 25,830 

EUR 45,757 
EUR 12,589 
EUR 33,168 

 (-) EUR 0,514 
(+) EUR 6,823 
(-) EUR 7,338 

Total expenditure 
Human resources expenditure  
Operational and administrative 
expenditure  

(28)  Pursuant to Article 2(3) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127, the deficit generated in 
2024, and that amounts to EUR 514 061, will be taken into account in the estimation of the overall 
annual costs that are expected to be incurred for the performance of the Commission’s tasks referred to 
in Article 43(2) DSA in year 2026. 

3.  Overall amount of supervisory fees charged in 2024 

(29)  Article 2 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127 provides that the costs to be estimated 
for  the  supervisory  fees  charged  in  year  n  should  be  determined  by  taking  into  account  all  human 
resources  to  be  employed  by  the  Commission,  as  well  as  other  operational  and  administrative 
expenditures related to the fulfilment of the tasks referred to in Article 43(2) of DSA in the year n+1. 

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(30)  Article  43(6)  DSA  provides  that  the  individual  annual  supervisory  fees  charged  to  each  provider  of 
VLOP or VLOSE pursuant to Article 43(1) DSA constitutes external assigned revenue in accordance 
with  Article  21(5)  of  Regulation  (EU,  Euratom)  2024/2509  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council. (10) 

(31)  The estimated total external assigned revenues deriving from the supervisory fees levied at the end of 
2024 for the year 2025, was included in the Statement of estimates (11) and the Working document, part 
V, (12) accompanying the Draft General Budget of the Union for Financial Year 2025 pursuant to Article 
41(8) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046, applicable at the time of publication. The overview of 
elements accounted for the estimation of the amount of external assigned revenue stemming from the 
supervisory fee, based on the forecasts of expenditure for 2025, was published on 30 June 2024. (13) The 
supervisory fees charged in 2024 therefore did not cover any expenditure incurred by the Commission 
to effectively carry out its supervisory tasks in the Union in the period running from 1 January 2024 to 
31 December 2024, as they will only cover expenditure incurred in the year 2025. 

(32)  Pursuant to Article 8(3) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1127, the Commission must 
indicate  in  the  present  report  the  overall  amount  of  supervisory  fees  charged,  including  the  date  of 
respective  payments,  any  missing  or  late  payment,  on-going  court  proceedings  related  to  the 
implementing decisions referred to in Article 6(4) of the Delegated Regulation and recovery procedures 
referred  to  in  Article  7(2)  of  that  Regulation  related  to  the  supervisory  fees  charged,  at  the  date  of 
finalisation of the report. 

(33)  The overall amount of supervisory fees charged in 2024 to cover costs of the Commission in 2025 was 
EUR  58 219 790.  All  providers  of  designated  services  paid  before  the  established  deadline  of 
31 December 2024, except for the provider of Facebook and Instagram, whose payment was received 
on 8 January 2025 and which, in addition, paid the corresponding late payment interests. There are no 
missing or overdue payments at the time of publication of this report as regards the supervisory fees 
charged on providers of designated services in 2024. 

(34)  At  the  date  of  finalisation  of  this  report,  there  are  five  ongoing  court  proceedings  related  to  the 
implementing  decisions  referred  to  in  Article  6(4)  of  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU) 
2023/1127, addressed to the provider of the designated services Facebook and Instagram (Case T-55/24 
relating to the supervisory fee charged in 2023 and Case T-89/25 relating to the supervisory fee charged 
in 2024), to the provider of TikTok (Case T-58/24 relating to the supervisory fee charged in 2023 and 
Case T-88/25 relating to the supervisory fee charged in 2024), and to the provider of Google Maps, 
Google Play, Google Search, Google Shopping and YouTube (Case T-92/25 relating to the supervisory 
fee charged in 2024). 

(35)  There are no ongoing recovery procedures referred to in Article 7(2) of that Commission Delegated 

Regulation related to the supervisory fees charged. 

(10) Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 
on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast), OJ L, 2024/2509, 26.9.2024, ELI: 
http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2509/oj. 
(11) SEC(2024)250, Chapter 02 20, pp. 313-314. 
(12) COM(2024)300, p. 110 (one of the items of the budget lines group “1.02OTH” Other Actions). 
(13) Commission Staff Working Document, ‘Overview of elements accounted for the estimation of the amount of 
external assigned revenues stemming from the supervisory fee pursuant to Article 6(1) of Commission Delegated 
Regulation (EU) 2023/1127’, 30.6.2024 SWD(2024)167 final (https://digital-
strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/overview-elements-accounted-estimation-amount-external-assigned-revenues-
stemming-supervisory-fee). 

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