The European Commission (EC) decided on Wednesday to impose heavy fines on technology giants Apple and Meta for violating European Union antitrust laws.
The European Commission’s press office said Apple must pay a €500 million fine and Meta must pay €200 million.
According to the statement, “As part of today’s decision, the Commission has ordered Apple to remove the technical and commercial restrictions on steering and to refrain from perpetuating the non-compliant conduct in the future, which includes adopting conduct with an equivalent object or effect.”
The decisions on the fines were made after extensive dialogue with the companies, during which they had the opportunity to detail their views and arguments.
The regulation of Facebook’s Marketplace service has also been cancelled for Meta. The European Commission has unveiled preliminary allegations regarding Apple’s work with alternative app shops, which could lead to new fines in the future.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the EU had originally planned to announce the fines on Tuesday, but after European Commissioner for Trade Policy and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič met with US administration officials on Monday, decided to hold off on the move so as not to jeopardise ongoing trade talks between the EU and the US.
However, despite this, the EC still went ahead with its decision in principle to penalise the tech giants for violating the rules of fair competition in Europe’s digital market.
Since returning to the White House and backed by the CEOs of major tech companies, US President Donald Trump has pressed the EU over its digital regulation, accusing the EC of taxing US tech businesses. The EC insists that the DMA and the Digital Services Act (DSA) are non-discriminatory regulations that are not negotiable as part of trade tariff negotiations. The US administration has made it clear that it views them as non-tariff barriers to trade that should be the subject of those negotiations.
