London – European Union Watchdog Fine Apples and Meta hundreds of millions of euros on Wednesday, which tightened enforcement of digital competition rules for 27 countries. The European Commission has fined Apple 500 million euros ($571 million) to prevent app makers from pointing out users at cheaper options outside the app store. The EU’s executive arm, the committee, was also fined 200 million euros ($228 million) as it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose to see the ads or pay to avoid them.
The punishment was less than the fine of the blockbuster Euro, who previously slapped large tech companies in antitrust cases.
Apple and Meta must either comply with the decision within 60 days or take the risk of unspecified “regular penalty payments,” the committee said.
The decision was expected to take place in March, but it appears to have been clearly thwarted amid the transatlantic trade war with President Trump, who has repeatedly complained about restrictions from Brussels that affect American businesses.
The penalty was issued under the EU’s digital market law, also known as the DMA. This is a drastic rulebook equivalent to a set of DOs and DOS designed to give consumers and businesses more choice and prevent major technician “gatekeepers” from cornering the digital market.
The DMA “she is trying to ensure that citizens have full control over when and how data is used online and that businesses can communicate freely with their customers,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of the committee’s Tech Sovereignty, in a statement.
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“The decision adopted today has discovered that both Apple and Meta are robbing users of this free choice and is necessary to change their behavior,” Virkkunen said.
The companies indicated they would appeal.
“The European Commission is trying to handicap successful American companies while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” Joel Kaplan, head of global affairs at Meta, said in a statement provided by the US technology giant. “This isn’t just fines. The committee that forces them to change their business model effectively imposes multi-billion dollar tariffs on the meta, demanding that they provide inferior services.
Apple accused the committee of “unfairly targeting” iPhone makers, saying it would “continue to moving goal posts” “despite the company’s efforts to comply with the rules.”
In the App Store case, the committee accused iPhone makers of impose unfair rules that prevent app developers from steering consumers freely into other channels.
The DMA regulations have requirements for developers to notify customers of cheaper purchase options and direct them to those offers.
The committee said Apple ordered that it remove technical and commercial restrictions that prevent developers from manipulating users to other channels and prevent them from terminating “non-compliant” actions.
“We spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with the law, but users have not requested it.”
“Despite countless meetings, the committee continues to move the goal posts at every stage,” the company said.
Apple also faces a wide range of anti-trust litigation in the United States. The Department of Justice argued The California company was illegally involved in anti-competitive behaviour in order to build a “smartphone monopoly” and maximize profits at the expense of consumers. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.
The EU meta-study centers around the company’s strategy of complying with strict European data privacy rules by providing users with the option to pay for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram.
Users can pay at least 10 euros ($11) a month to avoid targeting advertisements based on personal data. The US tech giant has rolled out this option after the top European Union courts determined that Meta must obtain consent before first displaying an ad to users.
Regulators say they have problems with Meta’s model and do not allow users to exercise their rights to allow personal data from a variety of services, including Facebook Marketplace, WhatsApp and Messenger, to be combined for personalized advertising.
Meta rolled out its third option in November, offering Facebook and Instagram users the option to check for less personalized ads if they don’t want to pay for an ad-free subscription. The committee is “currently assessing” the option and is continuing consultations with Meta, asking the company to provide evidence of the impact of the new option.
The European Commission also has it Google slapped it several times under antitrust penaltiesin 2018, a record $5 billion fine was imposed in 2018 for abuse of search engines for the market advantage of Android mobile phone operating systems.
