EU hits Apple and Meta with €700m of fines

The European Union has ordered Apple and Meta to pay a combined €700m (£599m), in the first fines it has issued under recent legislation intended to curb the power of big tech.

It has issued a €500m (£428m) fine to Apple over its App Store, while Meta has been fined €200m (£171m) over the way it handled user data.

“We have a duty to protect the rights of citizens and innovative businesses in Europe,” Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.

The two tech firms have reacted angrily, with Meta accusing the EU of “attempting to handicap successful American businesses” and Apple saying it was being “unfairly targeted” and forced to “give away our technology for free.”

The fines are lower than some of those issued by the EU in the past but come at an extremely sensitive time, with trade tensions with the US heightened.

The US has levied a 10% tariff on imports from the EU, with President Donald Trump previously accusing Europe of “taking advantage” of America.

The European Commission – the EU’s executive – started both investigations last year under a new law brought in to promote fairness in the tech sector called the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The case against Apple was over its App Store.

The Commission says it must freely offer alternative app marketplaces to users and app developers – and says Apple was in breach of this.

Meanwhile, Meta’s fine was over the way it handled cookies – the bits of code embedded into websites which gather information about users.

Meta introduced a “consent or pay” model on Facebook and Instagram, which meant users had to choose between allowing cookies to track them, or pay a monthly subscription.

The Commission says this model did not allow users to freely consent to how their data was used.

In both cases, the Commission says the size of the fine takes into account “the gravity and duration of the non-compliance”.

Both companies have 60 days to comply or risk further fines.

Apple said the Commission had made “a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free.”

It also accused the Commission of “[moving] the goal posts” during their meetings.

Meta said the ruling means Chinese and European companies are allowed to operate to different standards compared to American businesses.

“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” it said in a statement.