DMA: EU Commission impose high punishments against Apple and Meta

According to the EU Commission, Apple has to pay a penalty of 500 million euros because it violates the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The procedure has been running since last year-since then, according to its own statements, the EU Commission has given several clear indications of how the company had to adjust its services in order to become DMA compatible. The punishment announced today was primarily about the App Store and the question of the extent to which the company hindered access to third -party stores – and thus other developers.

Meta should pay 200 million euros. It is about the so-called pay-or-consent model: Meta requires users in the EU if it rejects the analysis of their behavior and linking this behavior across platforms. The EU Commission had already announced in July 2024 that it saw a DMA violation in the design. Meta made improvements last November, these are currently being examined by the EU Commission, regardless of the DMA penalty pronounced today.

The EU Commission Vice President Henna Virkkuns emphasized that the DMA aims to protect the market for consumers and companies. “In the decisions assumed today, it is determined that both Apple and Meta have taken this free choice to their users and have to change their behavior,” says the Finn, who has been responsible for digital things since autumn 2024. The EU Commission has the obligation to protect citizens and companies in Europe.

Transatlantic political issue

Meta, on the other hand, is wrongly punished. “The European Commission is trying to hinder successful American companies as it allows Chinese and European companies to work according to different standards,” says a statement. It is a kind of billion dollar customs, the commission is forcing Meta to change its own business model – towards an inferior service. “And due to the unjust limitation of personalized advertising, the European Commission also harms European companies and economies,” Meta writes.

The DMA has recently also been in the focus of transatlantic debates-on the part of the US administration under Donald Trump, there have been repeatedly express reminders to the EU not to hinder US companies. In parts of the administration, there is the view that the EU regulation and the resulting punishments would represent customs-like barriers to trade. Meta has now apparently joined this.

So far, however, no concrete derivations for dealing with EU penalties have been followed by a memorandum of the US President of February, with which he had instructed his authorities for examination. Some US companies had also emphasized that the EU as a competition law addresses the digital market problem-and therefore use them to enforce their interests towards the greatest actors.

However, Meta is currently also the focus of the supervisory authority Federal Trade Commission as part of a competition process. In contrast to the FTC process, the European Digital Markets Act is not about possible breakup or debt of corporations. Google’s monopoly is also negotiated in the USA.

DMA is a powerful competition law

Unlike the digital services act, which is primarily concerned with due diligence and liability issues from operators, the Digital Markets Act is part of competition law with which dangerous monopoly positions and abuse of power are to be prevented by dominant actors for the free market. With the DMA, the specific competitive conditions in the digital space should be taken into account, where data access and interoperability play a major role.

Against the decision of the EU Commission, the companies concerned can proceed in the European jurisdiction in Luxembourg. In the past, other competition law punishments had been partially collected by the European Court of Justice.