The European Commission has fined US tech giants Apple and Meta €500 million and €200 million respectively for breaching new European rules on digital markets.
The Commission is fining Apple for the iPhone maker’s creation of barriers for app developers seeking to direct consumers to alternative offerings outside Apple’s App Store.
Meta, in turn, is being penalised because Facebook and Instagram users were forced to accept the “consent or pay” model until November 2024. That model required them to choose between automatically agreeing to targeted advertising based on personal data or paying to avoid those ads.
Since March 2024, the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) has imposed several obligations on the most prominent digital players to improve free competition in these markets. This is the Commission’s first imposed fines under this new legislation. Both companies have 60 days to comply with the decisions.
‘To obey the law’
“Apple and Meta have breached the DMA by introducing measures that increase the dependency of business users and consumers on their platforms,” said Vice-President Teresa Ribera, in charge of competition policy. “All companies operating in the European Union must abide by our laws and respect European values.
In theory, sanctions under the DMA could amount to up to ten percent of global turnover. According to the Commission, these fines are determined based on the seriousness and duration of the infringements of these relatively new laws. The Berlaymont building emphasises that the penalties are separate from the tariff offensive unleashed by President Donald Trump.