By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM, Oct 8 (Reuters) - An independent body,

supported by Meta Platforms' ( META ) Oversight Board, has a

certification from the media regulator in Ireland to resolve

appeals against policy violation decisions of social media

companies in the European Union.

Formed as a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body

under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), Appeals Centre Europe

will initially decide cases relating to Facebook, ByteDance's

TikTok and Alphabet's YouTube, and will include more

social media platforms over time.

With a team of experts, the body will apply human review to

every case within 90 days, and decide whether platforms'

decisions are consistent with their content policies, it said in

a statement.

Dublin-based Appeals Centre, which has an one-time grant

from the Oversight Board, will be funded through fees charged to

social media companies for each case. Users who raise a dispute

will pay a nominal fee, which will be refunded if decision is in

their favour.

However, under the rules of DSA, providers of online

platforms may refuse to engage with such dispute settlement body

and it shall not have the power to impose a binding settlement

of the dispute on the parties.

The former director of the Oversight Board, Thomas Hughes,

is taking on a new role as the inaugural CEO of the Appeals

Centre.

"We want users to have the choice to raise a dispute to a

body that is independent from governments and companies, and

focused on ensuring platforms' content policies are fairly and

impartially applied," Hughes said.

The Appeals Centre will have a board of seven non-executive

directors and will start receiving disputes from users before

the end of the year.