The European Union on Wednesday, April 23, fined Meta and Apple hundreds of millions of euros each for breaching the region’s legislation on digital competition.
The European Commission, which is the executive body of the European Union, said it was fining Apple for 500 million euros ($571 million) and Meta for 200 million euros ($228.4 million). It was noted that these measures are related to the fact that the mentioned technology giants violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
European officials said Apple had failed to comply with the so-called anti-steering obligations under the DMA. According to European Union technology legislation, an iPhone developer is required to allow developers to freely inform customers about alternative offers outside of their App Store.
Apple was ordered by the EC to remove technical and commercial restrictions on steering and to refrain from further non-compliance in the future. The company released a statement in which it was noted that the iPhone developer plans to appeal the fine and is negotiating with the European Commission. The technology giant also claims that the mentioned measure is another example of how the specified regulator unfairly targets Apple by making several decisions that have a negative impact on the privacy and security of users, and products. Moreover, it was underlined that these decisions are forcing the company to give away its technology for free.
Apple’s statement also noted that the company has spent thousands of hours on engineering and made dozens of changes to comply with DMA, none of which its users have asked for. Besides, the technology giant stated that despite countless meetings, the European Commission continues to move goal posts every step of the way.
As for Meta, the mentioned regulator claims that this company, which owns a group of social networks, illegally required users to consent to share their data with the firm or pay for an ad-free service. This was in response to the technology giant’s introduction of a paid subscription tier for Facebook and Instagram in November 2023.
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, stated that the European Commission was attempting to handicap successful American businesses by allowing European and Chinese companies to operate according to different standards. It was also noted that in this case, it is not just a fine that is meant. Joel Kaplan argues that the European Commission, which is forcing the technology giant to change its business model, is effectively imposing a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring the company to offer an inferior service. Moreover, in this context, it was noted that the mentioned regulator, by unfairly restricting personalized advertising, also harms European businesses and the economy.
The European authorities said that the fine against Meta was imposed taking into account the moves made by the technology giant to comply with the rules of the region through the new version of the free personalized ads service, which uses less personal data to display advertising content.
The regulators noted that the European Commission is currently assessing the new option and continuing its dialogue with Meta, requesting the firm to provide evidence of what impact the new ads model has in practice.
The media also published information according to which the mentioned technology giant was sent a cease-and-desist order by the EU ordering it to make changes to its less personalized ads option over the coming 60 days or face further fines. In this case, the journalists refer to an insider who used the right of anonymity, since the specified information is not public.
The media claim that the antitrust decision of the European regulator could potentially provoke retaliatory measures from the administration of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. In this context, it is separately noted that Mr. Trump does not hide his dissatisfaction with the practice under which the European authorities are taking regulatory enforcement actions against US digital giants.
This month, the United States imposed so-called reciprocals on goods imported from virtually all regions of the world, including the European Union. The EU faced 20% US levies. Then Donald Trump announced a pause in tariff increases, during which 10% duties would apply to the European Union. If Brussels and Washington reach an agreement on improving the terms of trade cooperation, the 20% levies could be a thing of the past forever.
Before the reciprocal tariffs were announced, Donald Trump issued a directive threatening to impose tariffs on the European Union to combat what the US president described as the overseas extortion of American technology companies through digital services taxes, fines, policies, and practices.
As we have reported earlier, ChatGPT Search Demonstrates Growth in Europe.
