European Union regulators have for the first time imposed fines on Apple and Meta for breaches of the Digital Markets Act, a regulation designed to foster competition within the digital economy. The penalties were announced on Wednesday by the European Commission, the executive entity of the 27-member bloc.

Apple was fined 500 million euros (£440 million), while Meta received a 200 million euro (£176 million) fine for violations of the recently adopted legislation. The Digital Markets Act, which came into force in 2022, seeks to prevent dominant technology firms from abusing their positions as digital gatekeepers. Specifically, it aims to stop these companies from enforcing unilateral constraints on users and businesses operating within their ecosystems.

According to the European Commission, Apple breached the regulation by limiting how app developers communicate with customers about sales and promotional offers. Meanwhile, Meta was found to have violated the law through a “consent or pay” framework. This system compels users to either consent to the usage of their personal data for targeted advertising or alternatively pay a subscription fee to access ad-free versions of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

This enforcement marks a significant development in regulatory efforts aimed at the world’s largest tech corporations, whose products and services are critical for communication, commerce, and information globally. Despite ongoing disagreements between the United States and the European Union on issues such as trade policies, tariffs, and geopolitical matters, there has been some degree of consensus on the need to regulate the market power exercised by major technology companies that collectively hold trillions of dollars in market value. The Digital Markets Act intends to rebalance competitive dynamics by constraining the capabilities of these firms to impose restrictive conditions on market participants.

Source: Noah Wire Services