Apple and Meta have been ordered to pay a combined €700 million ($799 million) in fines by the European Union, the first issued by antitrust regulators under new sanctions brought in to curtail the dominance of Big Tech.
Apple was issued with a €500 million ($571 million) fine over its App Store, with the commission saying the company must freely offer alternative app marketplaces to users and app developers.
Meanwhile Meta was fined €200 million ($228 million) over the way it handled user data, specifically cookies. The commission argued that Meta’s “consent or pay” model on Facebook and Instagram, giving users the option either pay a monthly subscription or allow cookies to track them, did not allow them to freely consent to how their data with used.
“We have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules,” said EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera. “All companies operating in the EU must follow our laws and respect European values.”
Both Apple and Meta pushed back against the fines, with Apple saying it would challenge the sanction.
“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,” it said in a statement sent to the BBC.
“The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” said Meta in a statment. “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.”
While modest compared to the penalties issues by the EU’s previous antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, the fines could stoke further tensions with Donald Trump, who has threatened to put levy tariffs in place against countries that choose to penalise U.S. companies.
