European Union regulators fined Apple €500 million ($570 million) and Meta €200 million ($230 million) for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These are the first non-compliance penalties against Silicon Valley tech under the DMA.
The European Commission announced that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation by restricting app developers from directing users to alternative payment offers outside the App Store. As a result, developers and consumers were denied access to cheaper, non-App Store options. Apple must now remove these restrictions and refrain from engaging in similar practices in the future.
“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 Commission wrote in a statement.
The Commission noted that it has closed the investigation into Apple’s user choice obligations, thanks to proactive engagement by Apple on a compliance resolution.
Meta’s fines totaled €200 million for violating the DMA by forcing a “Consent or Pay” model on Facebook and Instagram users to choose between personalized ads (via data sharing) or a paid ad-free experience.
Here’s more about Meta’s non-DMA compliance:
The Commission found that this model is not compliant with the DMA, as it did not give users the required specific choice to opt for a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the ‘personalised ads’ service. Meta’s model also did not allow users to exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of their personal data.
In November 2024, after numerous exchanges with the Commission, Meta introduced another version of the free personalised ads model, offering a new option that allegedly uses less personal data to display advertisements. The Commission is currently assessing this new option and continues its dialogue with Meta, requesting the company to provide evidence of the impact that this new ads model has in practice.
Without prejudice to this ongoing assessment, today’s decision finding non-compliance concerns the time period during which end users in the EU were only offered the binary ‘Consent or Pay’ option between March 2024, when the DMA obligations became legally binding, and November 2024, when Meta’s new ads model was introduced.
The Commission outlined that Apple and Meta have two months to comply with DMA compliance – or be faced with another round of fines.
“Today’s decisions send a strong and clear message. The Digital Markets Act is a crucial instrument to unlock potential, choice and growth by ensuring digital players can operate in contestable and fair markets. It protects European consumers and levels the playing field,” EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera wrote in a statement.
Ribera continued: “Apple and Meta have fallen short of compliance with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers on their platforms.
“As a result, we have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules. All companies operating in the EU must follow our laws and respect European values,” she concluded.
Threats of retaliation from the Trump administration loom over these tech investigations by European regulators who think they’re ‘regulators of the world’… Google faces potential fines for business practices relating to its Google Pay app, store, and search engine, which may have violated DMA.
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