Apple, Meta Hit With Hefty Fines From Europe

European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of euros on Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc's digital competition rules, per the AP. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, imposed a fine of 500 million euro, or $571 million, on Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store. The commission also fined Meta Platforms 200 million euros, or about $230 million, because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing personalized ads or paying to avoid them.

The punishments were smaller than the blockbuster multibillion-euro fines that the commission has previously slapped on Big Tech companies in antitrust cases. Apple and Meta have to comply with the decisions within 60 days or risk unspecified "periodic penalty payments," the commission said. The penalties were the first issued under the EU's Digital Markets Act, also known as the DMA. It's a sweeping rule book that amounts to a set of do's and don'ts designed to give consumers and businesses more choice and prevent Big Tech "gatekeepers" from cornering digital markets. Among the DMA's provisions are requirements to let developers inform customers of cheaper purchasing options and direct them to those offers.

Both companies indicated they'd appeal. Apple accused the commission of "unfairly targeting" the iPhone maker, saying it "continues to move the goalposts" despite the company's efforts to comply with the rules. Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said the commission "is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards." In a press briefing in Brussels, commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier noted, "We don't care who owns a company. We don't care where the company is located. We are totally agnostic on that front." (More European Commission stories.)