CJEU rejects Stripchat VLOP appeal, AG advises CJEU to dismiss TikTok Gatekeeper challenge

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has delivered setbacks to Stripchat and TikTok in separate legal challenges against European Commission designations under the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), respectively. 

In Case T-134/24, the General Court dismissed an appeal by Technius, the operator of the adult platform Stripchat, challenging its DSA classification as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP). Technius reported an average monthly active recipients figure of 31.8 million in February 2023. However, the Commission found that the company's Similarweb-based methodology improperly discounted bounced visits, underestimating its reach. Determining that actual unique monthly visitors exceeded 62 million, above the 45 million threshold, the Commission designated Stripchat a VLOP on 20 December 2023, imposing heightened transparency, risk management, and oversight duties. The General Court confirmed the reliability of the Commission's supporting figures.

Separately, in Case C-627/24 P, Advocate General (AG) Andrea Biondi advised the CJEU to dismiss elements of an appeal ByteDance brought against its DMA gatekeeper designation for TikTok. 

After the General Court rejected ByteDance's earlier challenge, the case marks the first DMA dispute before the top Court.

Biondi advised that the Commission lacks discretion and must open a market investigation whenever an undertaking presents arguments that manifestly call the presumptions into question, whereas unsubstantiated challenges may be dismissed directly. Biondi clarified that challengers must provide convincing arguments rather than merely casting doubt. 

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