Enduring Measurement as User Consideration on Social Media Platforms under EU VAT Law

Social media platforms treat users’ privacy as an economic good, and users must consequently endure this interference when using these services. This obligation to submit to continuous measurement in exchange for the ability to use the platform constitutes the consideration that users provide for the supply of a service under European Union value added tax (VAT) regulations, and the remuneration is quantifiable in monetary terms. This means that these services are not provided free of charge, thus, a platform entrepreneur should pay VAT in EU countries based on their value. Online services in 2025 differ significantly from those during the dot-com boom at the turn of the twentieth century. Companies providing online services have refined their business models to search for opportunities to finance their operations in a number of ways. The primary method is the advertising business which often involves significant intrusion into users’ privacy. Therefore, for Internet platforms, the value derived from users’ personal space can be as substantial as the revenue from advertising. The unprecedented degree of user surveillance inherent in these Internet services, something that mankind has never experienced before, necessitates a reinterpretation of the concepts in VAT regulations to better align them with the economic realities of the third decade of the twenty-first century.