The European Commission has found that both Apple and Meta have breached the Digital Markets Act, and have received fines totalling €700,000,000.
In Apple's case, the breach was related to a violation of anti-steering rules, and the associated fine was set at €500 million—whereas Meta was found in breach of an obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data, resulting in a €200 million fine.
Apple's steering terms violation is related to the company's App Store, which, under the terms of the act, is required to allow developers to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside of the ecosystem (via The Register). According to a European Commission press release:
"The Commission found that Apple fails to comply with this obligation. Due to a number of restrictions imposed by Apple, app developers cannot fully benefit from the advantages of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store.
"Similarly, consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers. The company has failed to demonstrate that these restrictions are objectively necessary and proportionate."
Meta's non-compliance fine, however, is related to what the Commission calls a "consent or pay" advertising model. As the press release describes it:
"Under this model, EU users of Facebook and Instagram had a choice between consenting to personal data combination for personalised advertising or paying a monthly subscription for an ad-free service.
"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."
While the fines may seem substantial, when it comes to the sort of figures both companies operate on daily, it really does seem like chump change. Meta, for example, has happily reported continuing operating losses for its Reality Labs (Metaverse) division for the past six years straight, and shows little sign of caring having posted losses of $17.7 billion in 2024. Simultaneously it is also reporting $164.5 billion dollars of annual revenue—while Apple's first quarter results this year reported revenue of $124.3 billion.
When companies like this can afford massive losses without incident (and rake in similarly massive gains in total revenue on the other side of the coin), it seems unlikely that fines totalling in the hundreds of thousands, or even in the millions, will keep any of their top executives awake at night.
Still, fines they have received, and fines they shall have to pay. I wonder if anyone's got the company chequebook handy?
