The European Commission fined Apple on Wednesday with 500 million euros for monopolistic practices in its mobile application store already target, with 200 million euros, for its old obligation to users to pay a subscription to avoid personalized advertising.
The sanctions, which were adopted coinciding with the negotiation of the European Commission with the US government to seek an exit to the tariff war, are the first under the Law of Digital Markets (DMA), the new standard of the European Union to regulate the market power of large Internet platforms.
The fines are far from the maximum sanction of 10 % of the global billing that the DMA allows for the “short period” that has elapsed since the investigation opened to Apple on June 24, 2024 and Meta, on July 1 of that same year, community sources said.
“Today’s decisions convey a blunt and clear message,” said the vice president for the clean transition and responsible for the competence policy of the commission, Teresa Ribera; And it is that the law “protects European consumers and establishes equal conditions.”
And he added: “Apple and Meta have not complied with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers of their platforms.”
“Consequently, we have taken firm but balanced compliance measures against both companies, based on clear and predictable standards,” said Ribera.
Apple
Under the DMA, Apple must allow mobile application developers to inform their clients of offers on the margin of the App Store, but Brussels concluded that the company applies technical and commercial restrictions that prevent both competition and users from benefiting from cheaper alternatives.
According to the European Commission in a statement, Apple has not been able to demonstrate that these restrictions are “objectively necessary” and also forces you to withdraw them.
The Community Executive also warned Apple who faces another future fine for the difficulties imposed on competition so that iPhone and iPad users use alternatives to App Store, such as the 0.5 euros rate that forces the developers of other mobile application stores to pay.
On the other hand, Brussels observed that Apple already allows the users of the iPhone to install alternative browsers to Safari and Apple and facilitated the change in the default configuration of calls, call filtering, messaging, keyboards, password administrators and translation services, so it closed another of the investigations that opened against the company in March last year.
Meta
Regarding Meta, the community executive considered that the subscription that forced Facebook and Instagram users to pay personalized advertising is contrary to the DMA because it prevented them from freely choosing a model that did not use their data similar to the payment system.
Meta introduced the system “to consent or pay” in November 2023 and was in force until November 2024, when it created a new version of the free personalized advertisement model that Brussels is analyzing.
The sanction, therefore, has been applied while the model was in force since March 2024, when the DMA entered into force, until November of that same year.
Apart from the fine, the commission considered that the online market for Facebook, ‘Facebook Marketplace’ should no longer be considered as a large Internet platform, having less than 10,000 business users per month, the requirement established by the regulations.
Apple and goal now have 60 days to meet the demands of the Commission or, otherwise, they will face daily fines.
