{"id":45490,"date":"2025-04-24T02:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/45490\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T02:53:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:53:23","slug":"europe-hits-meta-apple-with-790m-in-antitrust-fines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/45490\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Hits Meta, Apple With $790M in Antitrust Fines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe European Union<\/a> has issued its first major fines under its antitrust legislation, the Digital Markets Act<\/a>, hitting Apple<\/a> and Meta<\/a> with a combined \u20ac700 million ($793 million) in penalties as part of a broader effort to rein in the influence <\/a>of major tech companies operating across the bloc.<\/p>\n

\n\tApple was fined \u20ac500 million ($566 million) over restrictions in its App Store that the European Commission said limit competition by preventing developers from offering alternative app marketplaces. Meta received a \u20ac200 million ($227 million) fine for its controversial \u201cconsent or pay\u201d model, which required users to either allow cross-platform data collection or pay for ad-free services \u2014 an approach regulators said does not constitute genuine consent under the law.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese companies have fallen short of compliance,\u201d said EU Commissioner Teresa Ribera. \u201cWe have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth Apple and Meta pushed back forcefully. Apple accused the EU of forcing it to \u201cgive away our technology for free\u201d and of undermining user privacy and security. Meta described the decision as \u201ca multibillion-dollar tariff\u201d imposed through regulatory fiat, and argued that the EU was holding American firms to different standards than their Chinese and European competitors.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Digital Markets Act, which came into effect last year, was designed to address what the EU considers systemic imbalances in the tech industry by requiring so-called gatekeeper platforms to open up to fairer competition. The Commission\u2019s actions mark the first enforcement under the new law.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the fines are modest relative to the companies\u2019 revenues \u2014 far smaller than the \u20ac2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) levied against Google last year<\/a> \u2014 they arrive at a moment of rising trade tension between Washington and Brussels. The Trump administration has already imposed a 10 percent tariff on EU imports, and criticism of European regulatory policy targeting U.S. tech companies has been mounting.<\/p>\n

\n\tA White House spokesperson has not yet commented on the latest fines, but the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a U.S.-based think tank funded in part by tech firms, called the EU\u2019s actions a revenue grab. \u201cThe Commission\u2019s actions today will not be well received by the Trump administration,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Epic Games, long at odds with Apple over App Store policies, welcomed the decision. CEO Tim Sweeney posted on X that the ruling was \u201cgreat news for app developers worldwide\u201d and urged U.S. lawmakers to follow the EU\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

\n\tLegal observers say appeals from both Apple and Meta are likely. Meta has already signaled its intent to challenge the ruling in the European Court of Justice.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the EU moves forward with investigations into other U.S. platforms, including Google and Amazon, and prepares for possible action against Elon Musk\u2019s X for violation of laws regulating the spread of disinformation and illicit content online, Wednesday\u2019s fines signal a more aggressive phase in Europe\u2019s tech oversight \u2014 one that may reverberate well beyond the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union has issued its first major fines under its antitrust legislation, the Digital Markets Act, hitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1662,2000,299,5187,1699,522,598],"class_list":{"0":"post-45490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-meta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114390683144190305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}