The European Union Commission fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of dollars for allegedly violating broad EU regulations over Big Tech.
In 2022, the world’s most sweeping tech regulation became law with the passage of the European Commission’s Digital Market Act. The law affected U.S.-based tech giants operating overseas and was aimed at making “digital markets in the EU more contestable and fairer.”
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On Wednesday, the European Union watchdogs imposed a $571 million fine on Apple, claiming the company broke the DMA by restricting app developers from marketing cheaper options for users outside Apple’s own app store and failing “to demonstrate that these restrictions are objectively necessary and proportionate.”
The commission also fined Meta Platforms $227 million for using a system under which European Facebook and Instagram users had to choose between seeing personalized ads or paying to avoid them.
This “pay-or-consent model” violated the DMA, “as it 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 DMA seeks to ensure “that citizens have full control over when and how their data is used online, and businesses can freely communicate with their own customers,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, said in a statement.
“We have a duty to protect the rights of citizens and innovative businesses in Europe,” Virkkunen continued. “The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free choice from their users and are required to change their behavior.”
Meta and Apple have condemned the fines, suggesting the EU is targeting U.S. businesses unfairly.
“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission is forcing us to change our business model, effectively imposing a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, told the Washington Examiner.
THE EUROPEAN UNION IS NOW THE WORLD’S MOST AGGRESSIVE REGULATOR OF DIGITAL MARKETS
“And by unfairly restricting personalized advertising the European Commission is also hurting European businesses and economies,” he added.
Apple announced it would appeal against the fine, accusing the European Commission of “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,” the company said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.