EU Fined Apple and Meta for DMA Breaches

The European Commission fined Apple €570 million and Meta €228 million for breaching the Digital Markets Act. These are the first penalties issued under the regulation aimed at curbing the market dominance of big tech players.

The fines follow investigations into Apple’s App Store policies and Meta’s advertising model, both found to violate DMA obligations aimed at ensuring fair digital competition. The EC explained that Apple was found to have violated the DMA’s anti-steering rule, which requires gatekeepers to allow app developers to inform users of alternative purchasing options outside the App Store, free of charge. The regulator concluded that Apple’s current terms restrict developers from fully steering users to external offers, undermining consumer choice and developer independence.

Meanwhile, Meta came under scrutiny for its consent or pay model rolled out in November 2023 across Facebook and Instagram in the EU, which forced users to choose between consenting to personal data usage for personalized ads or paying for an ad-free experience. This binary setup failed to offer an alternative that used less personal data, as mandated by the DMA. While the Facebook owner launched a new ad model in November 2024, the watchdog’s decision focuses on the earlier period of non-compliance as it evaluates the updated model.

The fines could further inflame tensions with US President Donald Trump, who has openly criticized the EU’s tech policies and threatened retaliatory tariffs on countries targeting US companies. The White House responded sharply, calling the penalties a novel form of economic extortion. Although EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera described the fines as a strong and clear message, the penalties are modest compared to previous EU competition rulings.

This could be seen as an attempt to enforce digital rules without triggering a trade escalation from the US administration. Brussels warned that failure of both companies to comply with the decisions within 60 days could lead to periodic penalty payments.