Art. 4 Determination of basic amount per service | Methodology for calculating the supervisory fee | DSA

This is a technical, formula-driven article that establishes the methodology for calculating the "basic amount" of the supervisory fee for each designated service — a figure that feeds directly into the final fee charged under Article 5.

The core logic is that each provider's share of the total supervisory costs is determined by two variables: how large their user base is relative to other designated services, and how long their service was designated during the relevant year.

Together, these two coefficients produce a proportionate allocation of the Commission's estimated annual costs across all providers.

Important points:

The Commission uses two coefficients to calculate each provider's basic amount: coefficient (U), based on average monthly active recipients as set out in Annex II, and coefficient (T), based on the proportion of the year the service was designated.
The user base figure (coefficient U) is derived from data available as of 31 August of the fee year, sourced from provider reports or other information available to the Commission.
The designation period (coefficient T) starts four months after notification of the designation decision and ends four months after notification of any termination decision.

1. In respect of each designated service subject to the supervisory fees pursuant to Article 3, the basic amount for the year n shall be calculated as the share of the overall annual costs estimated for the year n+1 in accordance with Article 2, proportionate to the number of average monthly active recipients of the designated service in line with the coefficient (U) referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, and taking into account the period during which the service has been designated in line with the coefficient (T) referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article, in accordance with the following formula:
  1. ${Basic_amount_in_year_n_for_designated_service}_{x} = \frac{Overall_estimation_costs_ in_year_n + 1}{\sum_{for_all_designated_services_n} (T_{n} \times U_{n})} \times (T_{x} \times U_{x})$
1. The coefficient (U) for the calculation of the basic amount for each designated service shall have the value set out in Annex II corresponding to the number of average monthly active recipients in terms of millions of units, rounded down to the nearest hundred thousand.
2. The number of average monthly active recipients of each designated service determining the applicable coefficient pursuant to the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be that resulting from data reported by the provider of the online platform or of the online search engine pursuant to Article 24(2) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, or information requested pursuant to Article 24(3) of that Regulation or any other information available to the Commission, as available on 31 August of year n.
1. The coefficient (T) for the calculation of the basic amount for each designated service shall be the proportion between the number of days during which the service is designated in year n, and the number of days of a year, calculated as follows:
  1. $T_{x} = \frac{Number of days of designation in year n}{Number of days in year n}$
2. In accordance with Article 33(6) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the period of designation shall be considered to start four months after the date of notification of the designation decision pursuant to Article 33(4) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 and shall be considered to end four months after the notification of the termination decision pursuant to Article 33(5) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.