On Wednesday, the awareness dogs of the European Union punished hundreds of million euros in two separate cases of Apple and Meta when they enforced the digital competition rules of the 27-nation block.
The European Commission imposed a fine of 500 million euros ($ 571 million) in order to prevent the app manufacturers from referring users outside the App Store to cheaper options.
The Commission, the Executive ARM of the EU, has also punished a fine of META platforms of 200 million euros (315 million US dollars), as they forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between personalized advertisements or payment to avoid them.
The punishments were smaller than the blockbuster-multi-euro fines that the Commission had previously beaten
About large technology companies in antitrust cases.
Apple and Meta must adhere to the decisions within 60 days or not specified “regular penalty payments”, which
Commission said.
The decisions were expected to be received in March, but the self-imposed period fell in the middle of an escalating transatlantic trade war with US President Donald Trump, who repeatedly complained about the regulations of Brussels affected American companies.
The punishments were granted according to the EU Digital Markets Act, also known as DMA. It is a comprehensive rule book that corresponds to a number of DOS and DONGEN to give consumers and companies more selection and to prevent Big Tech “Gatekeeper” from taking digital markets in curves.
The DMA tries to ensure that “citizens have full control over when and how their data is used online, and companies can communicate freely with their own customers,” said Henna Virkkuns, the Executive Vice President of the Commission for Technical Sovereignty.
“The decisions made today find that both Apple and Meta have taken this free choice from their users and are obliged to change their behavior,” said Virkkuns.
Both companies stated that they would appeal.
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Apple accused the Commission of “unfair” the iPhone manufacturer and said that she “continues to postpone the goal posts”.
Despite the company’s efforts to comply with the rules.
Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer Global Affairs, said in a statement that the “Commission is trying to hinder successful American companies and at the same time enable Chinese and European companies to operate according to various standards”.
In a press conference in Brussels, the spokesman for the Commission tried to suppress concerns that the punishments would ignite trade voltages.
“We don’t care who belongs to a company. We don’t care where the company is,” said the Commission’s spokesman, Thomas Regnier. “We are completely agnostic on this front of a European Union.”
“While a Chinese company, be it an American company or be it a European company, they have to play according to the rules in the European Union.”
In the App Store case, the Commission had accused the iPhone manufacturer of imposing unfair rules in order to prevent app developers from steering consumers freely to other channels.
DMA’s provisions include requirements in order to be able to inform developers about cheaper shopping options and to direct them to these offers.
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The Commission said that it instructed Apple to remove technical and commercial restrictions that are prevented from preventing developers on other channels and ending “non -compliant” behaviors.
Apple said “hundreds of thousands of engineering lessons and made dozens of changes to comply with this law that none of which asked our users”.
“Despite countless sessions, the Commission moves the targets on every step of the way,” said the company.
The EU META investigation focused on the company’s strategy of complying with strict European data protection rules by giving users the opportunity to pay for versions of Facebook and Instagram for ad-free-free.
Users could pay at least 10 euros ($ 11.40) per month so as not to target advertisements based on their personal data. The US Tech giant has introduced the option after the Supreme Court of the European Union decided that Meta must first obtain approval before they have displayed users.
The supervisory authorities have questioned with the META model, and it does not allow users to make their right to “freely agree” to enable their personal data from their various services, including the Facebook marketplace, WhatsApp and messenger, to be combined for personalized ads.
Meta introduced a third option in November in which Facebook and Instagram users in Europe have the opportunity to see fewer personalized advertisements if they do not want to pay for an advertising subscription. The Commission said that it “currently rated” this option and continues to perform talks with META and asked the company to show the effects of the new option.
“It’s not just a fine. The Commission forces us to change our business model, a billion -dollar tariff for meta while we have to offer inferior service,” said Kaplan. “And when personalized advertising restricts unjust, the European Commission also damages European companies and economies.”
