The Commission of the European Union has slapped Apple and Meta with fines of €500 million and €200 million, respectively, for breaching the rules of the Digital Markets Act. Specifically, it found Apple guilty of breaching the anti-steering obligation under the DMA and Meta failing to offer users a service option that uses less of their personal data.
In Apple’s case, the Commission found that app developers can’t fully benefit from alternative app stores, due to Apple’s restrictions. It also found that Apple prohibits developers from communicating cheaper offers directly to consumers, which is against DMA rules. The Commission said that Apple had failed to demonstrate why it needs these restrictions.
Regarding Meta, the Commission found that the binary choice the social media firm offers users breaches the DMA. In the European Union, users can choose to see personalized ads or pay a subscription fee to go ad-free. The Commission wants to see Meta offer an ad-supported option, but with less personalization, like many other platforms already provide.
Despite these hefty fines, Meta did get a bit of reprieve from the EU. The Commission said that the Facebook Marketplace will no longer be subject to the DMA because of a drop in business users. On the matter, the Commission said:
“Following a careful assessment of Meta's arguments and as a result of Meta's additional enforcement and continued monitoring measures to counteract the business-to-consumer use of Marketplace, the Commission found that Marketplace had less than 10,000 business users in 2024. Meta therefore no longer meets the relevant threshold giving rise to a presumption that Marketplace is an important gateway for business users to reach end users.”
In recent years, the European Union has been taking hard-hitting actions against big tech. According to reports this month, the EU is not planning to back down on these efforts, despite the threat of tariffs from US President Trump.
Source: European Commission
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