Apple, Meta Hit By €700 Million In EU Fines Over Antitrust Rules After Trump Threats

Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. were hit by relatively modest European Union fines totaling €700 million ($798 million) for violating tough new antitrust rules for Big Tech following warnings of harsh retaliation from US President Donald Trump.

EU regulators levied the penalties — €500 million against Apple and €200 million against Meta — under its Digital Markets Act, which includes a list of dos and don'ts for Silicon Valley giants.

The punishments are far lower than previous penalties under traditional EU competition law, and are likely to be seen as an attempt to avoid further provoking Trump, who recently laid out a swath of tariffs on global economies. He's specifically called out the EU's tech regulations as the kind of non-tariff trade barrier that his so-called reciprocal tariffs are intended to target.

The European Commission said that Apple had failed to allow developers to link out from its App Store in order to make sales outside of the company's marketplace.

Meta's business model for ad-free services on Instagram and Facebook also fell foul of the tech law, which gives regulators fining powers of up to 10% of a company's global annual revenue.

“Apple and Meta have fallen short,” EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said. “All companies operating in the EU must follow our laws and respect European values.”

The fines are the first under the DMA. Both firms must comply with the EU decision within 60 days, or face the risk of further financial penalties.

Apple was also warned that its new fee structure for app developers — itself a plan devised to comply with EU rules — isn't in line with the EU Big Tech rulebook.

Apple responded fiercely to the EU penalty, accusing the bloc's regulators of discriminating against the company and forcing it to give away its technology for free. The Cupertino, California-based company said it would appeal the fine to the EU courts. Just last year, the company was hit with a €1.8 billion EU fine for shutting out music-streaming rivals on the iPhone.

Meta also hit back, saying the EU “is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”

Apple did however see EU watchdogs close an investigation into online browsers after it rejigged how it offers users more choice on their iPhones.

EU regulators also backtracked on their decision to target Facebook Marketplace under the DMA. Meta was hit by a €798 million EU fine alleged abuses on that service last year under standard antitrust law.

Over recent years the EU has made costly penalties against firms, including more than $8 billion in fines against Alphabet Inc.'s Google and a separate order for Apple to pay Ireland back taxes of €13 billion. Under its abuse-of-dominance rules, it has also forced changes out of Amazon.com Inc.'s marketplace platform and Apple's tap-and-go chip, while also investigating Microsoft Corp. video conference software, Teams.