“The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free choice from their users and are required to change their behaviour,” Virkkunen said.
Both companies indicated they would appeal.
‘Moving goalposts’
Apple accused the commission of “unfairly targeting” the iPhone maker, and said it “continues to move the goalposts” despite the company’s efforts to comply with the rules.
Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a statement that the “Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”
In a press briefing in Brussels, commission spokespeople sought to tamp down concerns that the penalties would inflame trade tensions.
“We don’t care who owns a company. We don’t care where the company is located,” commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters. “We are totally agnostic on that front.”
“And be it a Chinese company, be an American company, or be it a European company, you will have to play by the rules in the European Union.”
In the App Store case, the Commission had accused the iPhone maker of imposing unfair rules preventing app developers from freely steering consumers to other channels.
Among the DMA’s provisions are requirements to let developers inform customers of cheaper purchasing options and direct them to those offers.
The commission said it ordered Apple to remove technical and commercial restrictions that prevent developers from steering users to other channels, and to end “noncompliant” conduct.
Apple said it has “spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for.”
“Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goalposts every step of the way,” the company said.
The EU’s Meta investigation centred on the company’s strategy to comply with strict European data privacy rules by giving users the option of paying for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram.
Strict privacy rules
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Users could pay at least 10 euros ($17.84) a month to avoid being targeted by ads based on their personal data. The US tech giant rolled out the option after the European Union’s top court ruled Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users.
Regulators took issue with Meta’s model, saying it doesn’t allow users to exercise their right to “freely consent” to allowing their personal data from its various services, which also including Facebook Marketplace, WhatsApp, and Messenger, to be combined for personalised ads.
Meta rolled out a third option in November giving Facebook and Instagram users in Europe the choice to see fewer personalised ads if they don’t want to pay for an ad-free subscription. The commission said it’s “currently assessing” this option and continues to hold talks with Meta, and has asked the company to provide evidence of the new option’s impact.
“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multibillion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” Kaplan said. “And by unfairly restricting personalised advertising the European Commission is also hurting European businesses and economies.”
The EU has already sanctioned Apple under the DMA, but it didn’t involve a fine. The bloc took action earlier this year to compel the company to open up its iPhone and iPad operating systems by outlining the steps it must take to work better with competing technologies.
AP
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