Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

Summary

By Foo Yun Chee and Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Apple was fined 500 million euros ($570 million) on Wednesday and Meta 200 million euros, as European Union antitrust regulators handed out the first sanctions under landmark legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech. The EU fines could stoke tensions with U.S President Donald Trump who has threatened to levy tariffs against countries that penalise U.S. companies. The sanctions follow a year-long investigation by the European Commission, the EU executive, into whether the companies comply with the Digital Markets Act that seeks to allow smaller rivals into markets dominated by the biggest companies. Apple said it would challenge the EU fine. "Today's announcements are yet another example of the European Commission 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," Apple said in an emailed statement. Meta criticised the EU decision. "The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards," it said in an emailed statement. "This isn't just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model, effectively imposing a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service." The EU competition watchdog said Apple must remove technical and commercial restrictions that prevent app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store. It said Meta's binary pay-or-consent model introduced in November 2023 breached the DMA. The model gives Facebook and Instagram users who consent to be tracked a free service that is funded by advertising revenues. Alternatively, they can pay for an ad-free service. Meta is discussing with the EU a new version introduced in November last year. The companies have two months to comply with t...