Date: 28 April 2025
Source: European Commission

Background:

On 23 April 2025, the European Commission, being the EU’s politically independent executive arm that implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, fined Apple and Meta with €500 million ($890 million) and €200 million ($356 million) respectively. This fine comes only a few weeks after the early March fine from the European Commission to Apple of €1.8 billion ($3.2 billion) for other anti-competitive conduct.

The European Commission investigated the anti-competitive practices of Apple and Meta from March 2024 and on 1 July 2024, formed a preliminary view that the companies were in breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), being the EU’s law to regulate the gatekeeping power of the largest digital companies.

Contraventions of the DMA

The European Commission found that:

• Apple failed in its obligation to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the Apple app store. This occurred by way of restrictions on app developers in its store to provide consumers with…