Big Tech companies Apple and Meta were hit with a combined $800 million in fines on Wednesday by the European Commission for breaking the Digital Markets Act, a law passed in 2022 meant to stop big tech companies from locking down users and choking out competitors.
The penalties—$570 million for Apple, $230 million for Meta—came after a year-long investigation and are the first enforcement under the new law, according to a report from the New York Times.
The Commission, the executive arm of the 27-country bloc, said Apple violated the law by stopping app developers from telling customers about deals and offers outside the App Store.
Developers weren’t allowed to say “Hey, you can get this cheaper here,” unless they were ready to risk being shut out by Apple. This kind of gag rule let Apple keep a tight grip on payment channels and user behavior, which the EU said cuts off competition and hurts consumers.
EU punishes Apple for blocking info and Meta for pay-or-consent policy
Regulators said customers using apps on Apple devices missed out on cheaper deals simply because Apple didn’t let developers send direct messages about them. “Consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers,” the Commission said in its findings. They added that Apple’s system keeps users locked in and gives the company full control of the app ecosystem.
That’s not all. Another preliminary decision dropped the same day shows Apple is also being accused of blocking access to rival app stores on iPhones and iPads. That case is still ongoing, but regulators said Apple may have violated the law again by restricting the way users can install apps from other sources. One other investigation—this one about Apple’s preinstalled apps—was closed after the company allowed users more freedom to delete them.
Meta, on the other hand, was fined for rolling out a system that asked users to either let the company use their personal data for targeted ads or pay a monthly fee to use Facebook and Instagram without ads. That’s not how consent works under the Digital Markets Act, the Commission said. The law says users must give permission for data sharing, and if they say no, they should still be allowed to use the service in a fair, though less personalized, way.
Both Apple and Meta now have 60 days to either follow the ruling or face even bigger fines. The law gives the Commission the power to charge companies up to 10% of their global turnover for noncompliance. In the case of Apple, that would mean tens of billions of dollars on the line if the company refuses to comply.
The decision didn’t land in a vacuum. The Trump White House warned in February that if the EU kept using the Digital Markets Act or the Digital Services Act to target American tech giants, the United States would consider hitting back.
Even though the EU investigations into Apple and Meta started long before Trump returned to office, they’ve now become part of a much larger fight over who controls tech rules globally. American companies are viewed as the EU’s main targets, especially after past efforts by Washington to impose tariffs on European products.
Back in the United States, Meta is on trial in Washington over accusations that it used buyouts to crush competition. Meanwhile, Google has already lost two big antitrust cases related to its search engine and ad business, and the Commission said the company might face more penalties soon, especially around how it runs its Play store and controls what people see in search.
X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, is also under investigation for breaking the Digital Services Act, which deals with illegal online content and false information, according to the Times report.
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