The European Union imposes the first fines on the ‘big Tech’ for breaching the Digital Markets Law (DMA) that entered into force in 2023. After a year of investigation, the European Commission has concluded that Apple and target violates that regulations and sanctions them with 500 million and 200 million euros, respectively. The Brussels decision is produced in the middle of Donald Trump’s commercial war, which has pressed the EU for its digital regulations, which imposes more strict obligations on companies (most based in Silicon Valley). However, the sanctions are well below the maximum of 10% of the global billing contemplated by the DMA and that would amount to about 40,000 million euros in the case of Apple and about 15,000, in the finish line.
The European Commission sanctions Apple for the obstacles imposed on developers so that they cannot communicate to consumers offers outside the App Store. As for Mark Zuckerberg’s company, he punishes the ‘consent or payment’ model since he does not offer alternatives that use less personal data.
“Today’s decisions send a firm and clear message. The Digital Markets Law is a crucial instrument to release the potential, choice and growth capacity, guaranteeing that digital agents can operate in competitive and fair markets,” says the vice president of competition, Teresa Ribera: “Apple and goal have breached the DMA when applying measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers of their platforms.
Low fines for “very short” periods of non -compliance
The sanctions are well below 10% of the global turnover of two companies. What the European Commission argues is that the fines are calibrated based on the “gravity” of breaches and that the non -compliance period is “very short.” He also remembers that these are the first sanctions for non -compliance with the DMA, so it is a scenario so far unexplored.
Brussels gives companies 60 days to pay the sanction and, of not doing so, threatens periodic fines (up to 5% of the company’s daily turnover), as if they do not make changes to comply with the legislation. However, that decision is not automatic but there would be a new process that includes exchanges with companies.
The sanction to Apple has to do with the restrictions that it imposes preventing developers and consumers to benefit from alternative channels to have alternative and cheaper offers to the App Store. “The company has not shown that these restrictions are objectively necessary and provided,” says the European Commission, which orders the multinacinal to eliminate those restrictions. Depending on the “gravity” and the “duration” of that behavior, the fine amounts to 500 million.
The 200 million euros of sanction to Zuckerberg respond to the ‘consent or payment model that imposes on social networks Facebook or Instagram and that basically forces users to give personal data to have personalized advertising or pay to have a version without ads. Brussels considers that this system violates its norms and that there should be a free option that forces to give less personal data. during the process, Meta introduced a new model that the European Commission is analyzing.
“Nothing has changed” with Trump’s arrival
“Without prejudice to this ongoing evaluation, the decision of today for which the breach is found refers to the period of time during which the EU end users were only offered the binary option ‘to consent or pay’ between March 2024, when the DMA’s obligations became legally linking, and November 2024, when the new Model of Meta A statement.
Community sources say that “absolutely nothing has changed” with the arrival of Trump with respect to the amount of the fines. “If something has changed by companies, it is a good question for them,” add those sources. The owners of the ‘Big Tech’ took advantage of the return of the Republican to the White House to raise the pressure against the EU for their digital norms and the president put them in the target during the first shipments of the commercial war. Despite this pressure, Ursula von der Leyen threatened to tax technology with taxes if the negotiation with Washington does not come to fruition.
In what they strive in Brussels, it is to unlink the resolution of the investigation, whose times are appraised and expected for a few weeks ago, as well as the determined amounts of the complex geopolitical situation unleashed following the commercial war. “It has nothing to do with tariffs,” they insist.
Brussels has closed the investigation to Apple for the obligations imposed on users regarding the use of predetermined adjustments or in terms of application choice. The European Commission argues that, as part of a “constructive dialogue”, it now meets the DMA by offering EU users the possibility of easily uninstalling any software application and changing the predetermined adjustments in iOS, as well as choosing its predetermined web browser, which was previously mandatory.
However, it keeps the procedure open due to 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.
As for the goal, he has had another “good news” because Brussels does not consider Facebook Marketplace a large platform, because it has less than 10,000 business users per month. By being out of that definition it is not subject to so many demands.
