The European Union has hit Apple and Meta with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for violating the EU’s digital competition rules.
Apple was fined 500 million euros or $571 million for not allowing developers to purchase apps outside of the App Store, which may have allowed consumers to have a cheaper option, The Associated Press reported.
The European Commission’s rules require developers to tell consumers that there may be cheaper options and to direct users to those options.
Apple said it had “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.”
CNN reported Meta Platforms was fined 200 million euros or about $228 million, because the European Commission said Facebook and Instagram users were forced to make a choice between personalized ads or paying to avoid them.
Meta charges at least 10 euros or $11.40 a month to allow users an ad-free version of Facebook or Instagram. The charge was introduced after Meta was required to get consent before showing ads to users.
The commission said that Meta does not let its user to “freely consent” to allow personal data to be compiled from all of the Meta platforms for targeting of personal ads.
Meta, in November, started allowing users to see fewer ads without having to pay and the commission is reviewing that option to see if it meets the regulation.
The two companies have to comply within 60 days to avoid “periodic penalty payments,” the European Commission said.
These were the first fines issued under the Digital Markets Act, or the DMA, which is a set of regulations that allow consumers and businesses to make choices and prevent companies from monopolizing markets, the AP said.
Apple said the commission has been “unfairly targeting” the company and that group “continues to move the goalposts,” as the company attempts to follow the regulations
Meta fired back in a statement, writing, “Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”
The fines were under the maximum set by the law, which The New York Times said could have been billions.
Both companies plan to appeal.
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