The European Commission fined Apple and Meta 500 million euros ($570 million) and 200 million euros ($228 million), respectively, after ruling that both companies restricted customer choices, the executive body announced on April 22.
Apple was found to have run afoul of anti-steering obligations under the DMA. The provision requires that developers distributing their apps via the company’s App Store are able to “inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases.”
The company “fails to comply with this obligation,” the commission said, adding that Apple imposed numerous restrictions on developers, because of which they could not take full benefit of distribution channels other than the App Store.
This means users are unable to benefit from alternative or cheaper offers, as the company prevents developers from informing their customers about such offers, the commission said.
As for Meta, the EU’s fines relate to the company’s “consent or pay” advertising model.
In November 2023, the company introduced this ad model, under which EU users of Instagram and Facebook had to choose between two options: provide consent to Meta to use their private data for personalized advertising or pay a monthly subscription for an ad-free service.
The commission said this model was “not compliant with the DMA.”
Under the DMA, gatekeeper platforms must provide a “less personalised but equivalent alternative” to users who do not consent to the usage of their personal data.
Meta’s consent or pay model “did not give users the required specific choice to opt for a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the ‘personalised ads’ service,” the commission said.
The ruling applied only to Meta’s conduct in the EU until November 2024. The company introduced another version of its ad model that month, which the commission is “currently assessing.”
The fines imposed on both Meta and Apple take into account “the gravity and duration of the non-compliance,” the European Commission said.
The latest decisions against Apple and Meta are “the first non-compliance decisions adopted under the DMA,” it added.
The companies are required to comply with the commission’s decisions within 60 days; failing to do so could cause them to be charged “periodic penalty payments.”
A Meta spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that “the European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”
“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” the spokesperson said.
“And by unfairly restricting personalized advertising, the European Commission is also hurting European businesses and economies.”
US–EU Tech Conflict
The fines come amid trade tensions between the United States and the EU. The Trump administration has imposed various tariffs on the EU, including 25 percent charges on aluminum, steel, and cars, as well as reciprocal tariffs of 20 percent. The reciprocal tariffs are currently on pause.“Regulations that dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the European Union, like the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, will face scrutiny from the Administration,” the fact sheet reads.
Foreign governments levying digital services taxes, imposing fines, or forcing certain policies and practices on U.S. companies may be met with “responsive actions like tariffs,” it said.
