EU Fines Apple 500M Euros & Meta 200M in Digital Cases

Post by: Omar Nasser

Photo : Reuters

The European Union has fined two big companies, Apple and Meta, a lot of money. The fines are part of the EU's rules to make sure big tech companies don't take unfair advantage in the digital world.

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Apple was fined 500 million euros (about $571 million). The European Commission, which is part of the EU, said Apple stopped app developers from telling users about cheaper ways to buy things outside of the App Store. This made it hard for people to find better deals.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, was also fined 200 million euros. The Commission said Meta made people choose between seeing ads or paying money to avoid them. This made people feel like they didn't have enough options.

These fines are smaller than some others the EU has given to big tech companies in the past. But Apple and Meta still have to follow the rules within 60 days or they could face more penalties.

The fines were given under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law made to give people more choices and stop big tech companies from controlling too much of the digital market. This law wants to make sure people have control over their data and can easily communicate with businesses online.

Henna Virkkunen, who works for the European Commission, said that Apple and Meta had taken away the freedom of choice from their users, and now they have to change how they do things.

Both companies said they plan to challenge the fines. Apple said the EU was unfairly targeting it and that the rules kept changing. Meta said the European Commission was hurting successful American companies while letting companies from other countries follow different rules.

The Commission said that Apple had unfair rules that stopped app makers from telling users about cheaper options. The Commission told Apple to remove these rules and stop stopping app developers from showing users other ways to buy.

Meta's fine came because of its way of showing ads. The company made users pay to avoid ads, but regulators said this was wrong because users didn't get to freely choose if they wanted to allow their data to be used for ads.

Meta also gave users the option to see fewer personalized ads, but the European Commission is still looking into this option.

Joel Kaplan, Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer, said that the EU's decision was more than just about the fine. He argued that it would hurt Meta's business and could also hurt other businesses in Europe by stopping personalized ads.

These fines show that the European Union is serious about controlling how big tech companies do business and making sure people have more choices online.

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