EU announces 700-mln-euro fine for US tech giants Apple, Meta

The European Commission announced Wednesday that it will fine US tech giants Apple and Meta a combined total of 700 million euros (US$798.7 million) for breaching the European Union's Digital Markets Act, marking the first non-compliance decisions under the new regulation.

Apple received a 500-million-euro fine for preventing app developers from informing users about alternative purchasing options outside its App Store, violating the DMA's anti-steering provisions, the Commission said.

According to the Commission, Apple's rules hindered developers from fully benefiting from external distribution channels and restricted consumers from accessing potentially cheaper offers available outside the App Store.

"The company has failed to demonstrate that these restrictions are objectively necessary and proportionate," the Commission said in a statement.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was fined 200 million euros over its "Consent or Pay" model introduced in 2023. Under the system, EU users were required to either consent to the use of their personal data for targeted advertising or pay a monthly subscription fee for an ad-free experience.

The Commission found that the model failed to provide users with a genuine, less data-intensive alternative and did not sufficiently uphold their right to freely consent to the processing of personal data.

The European Commission has required both companies to comply with the decisions within 60 days, warning that failure to do so could lead to periodic penalty payments.

Meta pushed back strongly against the ruling, accusing the EU of attempting to "handicap successful American businesses."

"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," Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, said in a statement.