The European Union has handed tech giants Apple and Meta significant fines of €500 million and €200 million respectively, for breaching the bloc’s new rules regulating digital markets.
The ruling penalised Apple for putting unfair restrictions on app developers who use its App Store. Facebook and Instagram-owner Meta was fined over its “consent or pay” model of charging users a monthly subscription, if they refused to allow the company to use their personal data to better target ads.
The fines were handed down following investigations launched over suspected breaches of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which seeks to regulate the power of big tech players. The regulations came into force in 2023 and put obligations on tech companies who hold dominant market positions, to allow fair competition.
The fines follow two antitrust investigations undertaken by the European Commission, the EU executive that enforces the union’s tech regulations.
The financial penalties on the US multinationals will likely stoke the trade dispute between the United States and the European Union, given US president Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the EU’s strict regulations on tech firms as unfair.
The commission has insisted its digital rules are not up for negotiation as part of any future talks to suspend trade tariffs Mr Trump has imposed on EU states.
The EU executive ruled that Apple was preventing app developers from steering customers to cheaper subscription offers available outside of its App Store system.
“Consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers,” it said.
It fined Apple €500 million and ordered the company to lift restrictions put on app developers who list their products on its App Store.
Tech giant Meta was fined €200 million over changes it introduced in late 2023, which required users to pay a monthly subscription fee, if they refused to allow their data to be used by the company to tailor in-app advertisements.
The commission ruled that this did not give Facebook or Instagram users enough choice to opt for a service that used less of their personal data, or allowed people to freely consent to how their data was used. The EU inquiry found that only a tiny fraction of Meta users opted to pay the monthly fee.
It is likely the fines will be appealed to the EU courts by both Apple and Meta.
“We will defend our case in court if we get there,” a spokesman for the commission said on Wednesday.
The fines are the first issued by the commission under its new tech competition rules.
While the investigations had concluded some time ago, extensive internal work to stress test the findings was carried out, in expectation the fines would be challenged in court.
“This has nothing to do with the tariffs, this is an independent decision,” one commission source said.
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said the EU body was “attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards”.
Mr Kaplan compared the commission’s direction that Meta alter its business model to a “multi-billion-dollar tariff” put on the company.
In a statement, Apple confirmed it would appeal the fine. The commission was “unfairly targeting” the iPhone maker, in a decision that it claimed was bad for privacy and would force it “to give away our technology for free”.
“We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for,” it said.
The ruling from the commission, which will allow people access a cheaper and broader range of content on the Apple and Meta platforms, has been welcomed by the largest umbrella group representing the interests of consumers in the EU.
“Today’s decisions are important to show Big Tech that if they choose to operate in the EU’s Single Market they must play by our rules,” said Agustín Reyna, director general of Europe’s consumer organisation BEUC.
He pointed out that both companies had been given “ample time to comply with the Digital Markets Act but instead have delayed compliance and tried to twist the rules to their advantage. Consumers deserve better choices, and businesses need fairer market conditions in digital markets, so the commission must enforce the law.”
BEUC described the DMA as “a game-changer in terms of opening up digital markets to more competition”. Mr Rayna called on the commission to enforce it effectively “so that gatekeepers comply with all its provisions and consumers can reap the benefits of more and better choice in digital services.”
