On April 23, the European Commission announced significant fines against tech giants Apple and Meta for non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple was fined €500 million, while Meta faced a €200 million penalty.

Apple's violation stems from its failure to allow developers on its App Store to inform users about alternative offers outside the platform. The Commission found that Apple imposed technical and commercial restrictions that hindered developers from directing customers to these alternatives, thus breaching its obligations under the DMA.

Meta's fine relates to its handling of user data across its platforms, Facebook and Instagram. The DMA requires that users must consent to the combination of their personal data for personalized advertising. If consent is not given, users should have access to a less personalized but equivalent alternative. The Commission determined that Meta did not provide such an alternative, forcing users to either consent to data combination or pay for an ad-free subscription.

The Commission is currently reviewing a new option introduced by Meta in November 2024 that utilizes less personal data. However, Meta is still required to pay the fine for the period during which users lacked a compliant alternative.

The Digital Markets Act aims to rebalance the relationship between major digital platforms and their users by imposing standardized rules to prevent unfair or deceptive practices by access controllers. These controllers are defined as entities with over 45 million monthly end-users and 10,000 business users annually in the EU.

Failure to comply with DMA obligations can result in fines of up to 10% of a company's total global revenue, and up to 20% for repeated violations.

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