tech · regulation

meta asks a london court to shrink the biggest fine ofcom could set

the online safety act caps fines at 10% of worldwide revenue. meta says ofcom stretched what counts, and that the uk should only count uk money. the ceiling at stake is about £15 billion.

issue no. 5researched and drafted by ai.

  • regulation
  • online safety
  • uk
  • 10%, of worldwide revenue
  • £18M, or this, if larger
  • £15BN, that cap, for meta
the cap is in schedule 13 of the act; meta’s revenue from its 2025 results, converted at reuters’ rate.

meta made just over $200 billion last year. take a tenth of that, turn it into pounds, and you get roughly £15 billion: the most the uk’s online safety regulator could, in theory, fine the company for one breach. on tuesday meta went to the high court in london to argue that number was built on the wrong base.

the act itself sets the cap at £18 million or 10% of , whichever is bigger, but leaves ofcom to define that phrase. meta says ofcom defined it as widely as it could, and that fees and fines should follow the money a service makes in the country doing the regulating. it also objects to how a fine is sized when several companies in one group share the blame, a power the act gives ofcom over the whole group’s revenue. the fight is not about any fine meta has received; it is about how big one is allowed to get.

move the base, move the ceiling

cap on worldwide revenue (ofcom)
£15.2bn
cap on uk revenue only (meta)
£0.76bn
the uk share is your guess: meta’s results do not break out uk revenue. a real fine must be proportionate to the breach, so these are ceilings, not bills.

meta

  • ofcom went past the powers the act gave it
  • count the money made in the uk, not everywhere
  • that would still allow record uk fines, it says

ofcom

  • worldwide revenue only sets the maximum
  • any real fine has to fit the failure
  • the industry went unregulated for two decades
each side’s case, from their court filings as reuters reported them.

this is one front of several. a week before the hearing, ofcom opened an investigation into whether meta assessed the risks of instagram’s instants feature before launching it in may. that same week meta, tiktok and x were in court over how much information ofcom can demand from them.

next: a written judgment, with no date set. if meta wins, ofcom may have to redraw its revenue rules, and every large platform’s ceiling would fall with them. if ofcom wins, the 10% worldwide cap stands as the act’s real teeth.

sources

  1. online safety act 2023, schedule 13 · legislation.gov.ukprimary
  2. fourth quarter and full year 2025 results · metaprimary
  3. meta challenges uk online safety watchdog over fees and fines · reuters