EU fines Apple and Meta nearly $800 million for non-compliance with EU rules

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, announced Wednesday the imposition of hefty fines worth hundreds of millions of euros on Apple and Meta.

Apple received a fine of €500 million (about $570 million) and Meta (parent of Facebook and Instagram) a penalty of €200 million (nearly $230 million), for violation of existing competition rules.

The European Commission confirmed the fines against the tech giants following more than a year of investigation and several months of dialogue with the firms for failing to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The fines would be for "violating" the Digital Services Act (DSA)

Brussels concluded that Apple is in breach of EU law for the restrictions it imposes on its App store developers who cannot inform users of alternatives outside the platform.

According to the DMA, Apple store must inform its customers free of charge about alternative offers outside the App store, direct users to it and allow them to make purchases, something it does not do so far.

The EU executive alleges that both companies have failed to comply with several points of the DMA provided by the Commission to prevent abuses of competition and monopolistic practices, and that the regulation itself provides for fines of up to 10% of the infringer's global business and up to 20% in the case of recidivism.

In addition to the fine of 500 million (a figure that, according to Brussels, has been set taking into account the seriousness and duration of the breach), the Commission has ordered the technology giant to remove the technical and commercial restrictions on supply management and to refrain from perpetuating the infringing conduct in the future.

The Commission imposed a €200 million fine on Meta for its “pay or consent” model

Separately, the Commission imposed a €200 million fine for its "pay or consent" model that forces users in the EU to choose between paying a subscription or allowing their data to be used for personalized advertising on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

In November 2024, after numerous exchanges with the Commission, Meta introduced another version of the free personalized ads model, offering a new option that reportedly uses less personal data to display ads.

The Commission reports that it is currently evaluating this new option, but the 200 million fine relates to the period between March 2024, when the investigation began, and November 2024, when Meta introduced the new advertising model that Brussels is reviewing.

Apple and Meta must comply with the Commission's decisions within 60 days; otherwise, they face periodic fines from the Commission.

In a statement, Apple said it will appeal the fine. For its part, Meta accused the EU of seeking to "harm successful U.S. companies, while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards."