This article was last updated on April 23, 2025
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European Commission makes Apple and Meta fines for 700 million euros
Apple and Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) receive fines of hundreds of millions of euros for violating the new European law for large tech companies. Apple has to pay 500 million euros and Meta 200 million euros.
Apple is fined because the company controls that subscriptions are being concluded via its app store, while people outside the App Store might get them cheaper.
Meta is fined because the company gave its users two options for months: a free subscription in exchange for sharing personal data for advertisements, or a paid subscription for Facebook and Instagram without advertisements.
Trade war with US
It is the first fines that Europe is handing out to break the digital markets law. It is intended for the largest internet companies. They must comply with the rules since March 2024.
The European Commission started that same month Investigations into Apple and Meta because of possible violation of the law. The fines had been coming for weeks, but would always have been postponed because of the trade war with the US.
Correspondent EU Ardy Voting:
“The fines are at a sensitive moment. The European Commission always emphasizes that the fines are independent of it, but they can indeed influence that. If only because Trump complains time and time again that American tech companies are given far too many rules imposed by the EU.
By still imposing the fines, the committee wants to show that the pressure of Trump is not being considered. At the same time, they also take a risk with this. The fines can be oil on the fire in the trade war with the US and the stiff negotiations about the import duties. “
The European Commission emphasizes that the fines come from “clear rules” and that the amount of the fines is only based on that.
“Today’s decisions are a strong and clear message,” says Teresa Ribera, the European Commissioner who is responsible for the enforcement of the DMA, in a statement.
“Apple and Meta have not complied with the DMA with measures that made people and companies more dependent on their platforms. All companies that are active in the EU must comply with our laws.”
Apple will object
Apple calls the fine “unfair”. “We spent hundreds of thousands of hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law,” the company told the NOS in a statement. Apple will object to the decision.
It is fined because it does not give app makers the freedom to point out to people they can close cheaper if they do not do so via the App Store.
In this way, Apple would manage that people take out their subscriptions in the app store, allowing Apple to earn money from it.
The European Commission has given Apple sixty days to adjust its policy, in addition to the fine of 500 million euros. If the Californian company does not yet comply with the law after two months, new fines can follow.
Share less data
Meta is fined for his subscription service. Users of Facebook and Instagram have to pay in order not to see personalized advertisements.
The law states that companies must request permission if they want to share personal data from users between different platforms. Those who do not give permission must have the same experience as people who do give permission.
That went wrong, the committee says. Meta did not give the option to share less data in the first few months, without affecting the advertisements.
The fine is lower for Meta, because the violation only lasted a few months: from March 2024 to November of that year. Meta then came up with a third option, where users could share less data. The European Commission is still looking at that situation.
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