Apple is fined €500m (£428m) for stopping app makers from pointing to cheaper options outside the App Store, and Meta is fined €200m (£171m) for forcing Instagram and Facebook users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.
Wednesday 23 April 2025 11:14, UK
Apple and Meta have been fined millions of euros by the EU for breaking digital competition rules.
They are the first companies to be fined for breaching a new law designed to increase competition in the EU’s digital economy.
Apple was fined €500m (£428m) for stopping app makers from pointing to cheaper options outside the App Store – and Meta fined €200m (£171m) for forcing Instagram and Facebook users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.
The fines were issued under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a series of rules designed to give consumers and businesses more choice and to prevent Big Tech from cornering digital markets.
Both companies have issued complaints about the penalties.
Apple accused the commission of “unfairly targeting” the iPhone maker, saying it has “spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law”.
Meta chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan said in a statement: “Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”
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