Meta expands UK Online Safety Act challenge as Ofcom faces implementation delays

Traders Union
All News
Financial News
Meta vs Ofcom Online Safety Act

Highlights

Meta filed a new legal challenge in the Upper Tribunal disputing Ofcom's categorisation of WhatsApp and Instagram as Category 1 services under the UK Online Safety Act.
Litigation from Meta, Roblox, and Quora is delaying enforcement of the Online Safety Act, with full implementation now expected after April 2025.
Meta objects to Ofcom's fee and fine structure—using qualifying worldwide revenue or £18 million minimum, with fines up to 10%—arguing costs unfairly burden large companies.

Dispute over categorisation and enforcement timeline

As first reported by Financial Times, Meta is pursuing a fresh legal challenge against Ofcom over its designation of WhatsApp and Instagram under the UK’s Online Safety Act. The appeal, served this week through the Upper Tribunal, concerns the so-called categorisation process that places extra duties on certain services, including protections against fraudulent advertising and stronger reporting on illegal content handling.

Meta argues that Category 1 obligations are not designed for private one-to-one and small-group messaging services. Roblox and Quora are also challenging Ofcom over similar categorisation decisions, while Meta is already pursuing two other judicial reviews in the High Court, with hearings due in October.

Officials and politicians are concerned that the mounting litigation is slowing the rollout of a law that takes effect in stages from April 2025 and is not expected to be fully implemented until next year. Damian Collins, a former junior minister for tech and the digital economy, says Meta is deliberately trying to frustrate and delay implementation, while Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says Ofcom has been too slow in enforcing the law.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s group director for online safety, tells a House of Lords committee that the regulator is operating in a highly litigious environment and is also underwhelmed by current progress. Ofcom says it will robustly defend its decisions across the different legal fronts.

Fees, fines and wider pressure on the sector

Another strand of Meta’s legal action challenges the fees and potential fines introduced under the Online Safety Act. Ofcom funds its enforcement through charges on technology companies based on qualifying worldwide revenue, but Meta argues the structure is disproportionate and insufficiently linked to its UK services, leaving larger companies to bear most of the regulator’s costs.

Meta also objects to the use of qualifying worldwide revenue, or £18 million, whichever is greater, as the basis for determining fines of up to 10% for companies that breach the rules. A full hearing on that dispute is expected in October. Industry figures say the fee and fine framework is broadly consistent with UK telecoms regulation and argue penalties must be meaningful if the law is to influence large U.S. technology groups.

A separate challenge involving Meta, TikTok and X focuses on how much internal information platforms must provide to Ofcom for monitoring compliance and harmful content controls. The companies argue some requests go beyond what the Act permits or what is necessary and proportionate, while Ofcom says parliament has given it responsibility to regulate a sector that has been largely unaccountable for more than two decades.

Meta says its cases are not aimed at overturning the law itself, but at contesting Ofcom’s interpretation and implementation of specific provisions. TikTok says it has committed significant resources to compliance and describes its own challenge as limited to a narrow issue over an extra-statutory programme.

We previously reported on the EU’s decision to hold back from launching a bloc-wide digital services tax while OECD-led talks on a global framework continue. The piece explained that Brussels sees an EU-level levy as a fallback if the international process stalls, even as some member states push for new revenue measures that could heighten trade tensions with the U.S.

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.