KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The European Union fined Apple and Meta Platforms hundreds of millions of dollars for breaching its Digital Markets Act.
- The DMA came into place early last year with the aim of ensuring big tech players don't dominate Europe’s digital market.
- Spokespeople for Apple and Meta said the tech giants plan to appeal.
The European Union (EU) fined Apple (AAPL) and Meta Platforms (META) hundreds of millions of dollars for breaching its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The European Commission, the EU’s enforcement arm, imposed a 500 million euro ($570.4 million) fine on Apple, and 200 million euro fine on Meta for violating the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:antitrust act. It also ordered Apple to remove what it called technical and commercial restrictions “on steeringꩲ and to refrain from perpetuating the non-compliant conduct in the future.” The Commission said Apple had violated DMA rules ensuring app developers distributing their apps on the iPhone maker's app stores can steer customers to their products free of charge.
Both companies have suggested they would appeal. The DMA came into place early last year with the aim of ensuring bigꩲ tech players don't dominate Eur🐈ope’s digital market.
Apple shares were up 3% in premarket trading, while those of Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, jumped 5% as stock futures surged after comments from President Donald Trump eased worries about tariffs and Federal Reserve independence. (Read Investopedia's live coverage of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:today's market action here.)
Apple, Meta Plan To Appeal Fines
An Apple spokesperson told Investopedia that the tech giant plans to appeal the📖 EU fine.
“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,” the spokesperson said. “We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for."
Meanwhile, the commission said Meta breached the DMA by requiring users of the😼 Facebook and Instagram parent’s products to consent to sharing their data or pay for an ad-free service. A Meta spokesperson sa🌞id the decision was completely flawed and confirmed Meta intends to appeal.
"The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a statement to Investopedia. “This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively impose🐼s a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Me🍸ta while requiring us to offer an inferior service.“
The EU’s move against two of America’s biggest tech firms could risk potential retaliation from President Donald Trump. In February, the Trump administration said it would consider tariffs or other actions in response to regulations and fines against American tech companies.