In a landmark ruling by the European Union, the Union’s antitrust regulators fined Apple and Meta, a staggering $800mn combined, for violations under the stringent Digital Markets Act. These are some of the first sanctions being handed over by the EU under the act and directly target some of the most critical business units at both the companies.
While Apple was fined 500 million euros ($570 Million), Meta received a lesser 200 million euros ($228 Million) fine for their respective violations. And while the fines are high on absolute terms, they are far lower from what EU has issued previously and what markets anticipated, largely to avoid any further escalation with the US administration under Donald Trump.
Both fines were handed out after nearly a year-long investigation into Big Tech companies, which was keenly watched by market actors and regulators globally. While low, these sanctions could still stoke fresh tensions with the US Trump administration, which recently shook markets with reciprocal tariffs across the world, including the EU.
In terms of company-wise violations, the European Commission concluded that Apple had failed to allow developers to link out from its App Store in order to make sales outside of the company’s marketplace, an issue that has been bone of contention for Apple across other markets as well.
Meta was fined by the commission for its business model for ad-free services on Instagram and Facebook, which it says go against the tech law. That gave regulators fining powers of up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue.
The Digital Markets Act, one of the strongest globally, was enacted by the EU to allow smaller tech players and startups, compete on a level playing field with Big Tech. The law, even though has faced obvious criticism from the US tech lobby, has largely been applauded by consumers and privacy advocates, giving sweeping powers to regulators for reigning in BigTech dominance and provide alternatives to consumers.
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