Summary Companies Companies given two months to comply or face fines Meta criticises the decision Apple to appeal EU fine BRUSSELS, April 23 (Reuters) – Apple (AAPL.O)
, opens new tab was fined 500 million euros ($570 million) on Wednesday and Meta (META.O)
, opens new tab 200 million euros, as European Union antitrust regulators handed out the first sanctions under landmark legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech.The EU fines could stoke tensions with U.S President Donald Trump who has threatened to levy tariffs against countries that penalise U.S.companies.Sign up here.
The sanctions follow a year-long investigation by the European Commission, the EU executive, into whether the companies comply with the Digital Markets Act that seeks to allow smaller rivals into markets dominated by the biggest companies.Apple said it would challenge the EU fine.
“Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free,” Apple said in an emailed statement.Meta criticised the EU decision.”The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” it said in an emailed statement.”This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model, effectively imposing a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service.” The EU competition watchdog said Apple must remove technical and commercial restrictions that prevent app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store.It said Meta’s binary pay-or-consent model introduced in November 2023 breached the DMA.
The model gives Facebook and Instagram users who consent to be tracked a free service that is funded by advertising revenues.Alternatively, they can pay for an ad-free service.
Meta is discussing with the EU a new version introduced in November last year.The companies have two months to comply with the orders or risk fines.Apple avoided a fine in a separate investigation into its browser options on iPhones after making changes that allow users to switch to a rival browser or search engine more easily.Regulators said these comply with the DMA and closed the investigtion on Wednesday.The iPhone maker was still charged with breaching the DMA rules by hindering users from downloading alternative app stores and apps from the web in a practice known as sideloading.Regulators criticised Apple’s conditions, saying these disincentivise developers from using alternative app distribution channels on iOS and also requires them to opt for business terms that include a new fee called Apple’s Core Technology Fee.
The EU regulator also dropped Meta’s Marketplace’s designation as a DMA gatekeeper because the number of users fell below the threshold.”We have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules,” the Commission said.Reuters had flagged the EU decisions on Apple and Meta last month.($1 = 0.8773 euros) Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Barbara Lewis
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Purchase Licensing Rights Foo Yun Chee Thomson Reuters
An agenda-setting and market-moving journalist, Foo Yun Chee is a 21-year veteran at Reuters.Her stories on high profile mergers have pushed up the European telecoms index, lifted companies’ shares and helped investors decide on their next move.Her knowledge and experience of European antitrust laws and developments helped her break stories on Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple, numerous market-moving mergers and antitrust investigations.
She has previously reported on Greek politics and companies, when Greece’s entry into the eurozone meant it punched above its weight on the international stage, as well as on Dutch corporate giants and the quirks of Dutch society and culture that never fail to charm readers.
Jan Strupczewski Thomson Reuters
Jan is the Deputy Bureau Chief for France and Benelux, running the Reuters office in Brussels.He has been covering European Union policy, focusing on economics, since 2005 after a five year assignment in Stockholm where he covered tech and telecoms stocks, the central bank and general news.Jan joined Reuters in 1993 in Warsaw from the main Polish TV news programme “Wiadomosci”, where he was a reporter and anchor for the morning news edition.Jan won the Reuters Journalist of the Year award in 2007 in the Scoop of the Year category, a second time in 2010 for his coverage of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and for the third time in 2011, this time as part of the Brussels team, for the Story of the Year.A Polish national, Jan graduated from Warsaw University with a Master’s in English literature.He is a keen sailor, photographer and bushcraft enthusiast..
