EU fines Apple €500 Million and Meta €200 Million under Digital Markets Act
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into effect two years ago, but no companies were sanctioned under the law until now. The European Union has slapped a hefty fine on Apple and Meta for violating the DMA.
The EU accused Apple of restricting alternative app marketplaces on its iOS platform, essentially reinforcing the dependency of both developers and consumers on the Apple Store. The Commission demands that Apple allow third-party app stores and supports sideloading applications, something the company staunchly opposes. Notably, regulators are unhappy with Apple's Core Technology Fee. Apple has been fined €500 million for breaching the law. The company criticized the fine, arguing that these demands amount to a requirement to "give away our technology for free," even as it has made some strides in improving user flexibility around default settings.
Meta incurred a fine of €200 million. The EU alleges that Meta's "consent or pay" model violates DMA rules by failing to obtain genuine consent from users for data merging. In this controversial setup, users are left with the option to either allow data collection, or purchase a subscription for services like Facebook and Instagram. Meta has criticized the EU's approach, claiming it is stifling successful American businesses and effectively imposing a multibillion-dollar tariff that leads to an "inferior service."
Both Apple and Meta have 60 days to comply with the DMA's regulations or risk facing additional sanctions. Reuters reports that both companies aim to challenge the fine.
As tensions mount, the fines could exacerbate ongoing trade disputes between Europe and the United States, which already has imposed tariffs on EU imports citing unfair tech regulations. The White House has criticized the EU for the fines levied against Apple and Meta, labeling them as “extortion.” With these escalations, the relationship between these two economic powerhouses is likely to remain fraught.
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Another wise measure. I will be eternally grateful to those wise minds for their decision to have me greeted on every website with the question of whether I want them to spy on me only as much as necessary or completely.
Daddy President ain’t gonna be happy, he’s already yelled. Let him yell, after all he’ll bend as he’s bent when facing Chinese determination. Europe is determinate as well. Planet Earth is already fed up with this jackass.
Apple and Meta are fined because they do not comply with EU regulations, after what they evoke together with rude Daddy European harassment. American administration doesn’t play it fair, but it’ll sink sooner or later. Nations have a history before and a life after their governments.
Fine them, fine any country that does not comply with EU regulations. As a personal note I’d add : avoid those companies.
Didn’t take you for a TDS sufferer, Tom – you seem reasonable in every other regard.
I wouldn’t be putting my trust or faith in a super-governmental body of appointees that are elected in closed-door meetings. One of the least democratic institutions imaginable, but you sing their praises for some reason.
@bruh, I happen to get annoyed, like everyone, and to express it, sometimes too loudly, but always sincerely, which by the way has led me occasionally into trouble. This said, i ignored the meaning of ‘TDS’, looked it up, found several definitions but I guess the one that applies here is the “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. It is not suffering from it which would seem to me unreasonable, yet expressing it here on a technological blog may be as well unreasonable. Fact is I posted right after having heard some latest news on Daddy’s eccentricities which — truly — revolted me; reading this article sort of linked with the revolt :)
Back to technology.
@bruh
Is it any better than putting your trust or faith in a super big tech body of appointees that are selected in closed-door meetings? One of the least democratic institutions imaginable?
@Anonymous you have made the mistake of assuming my political leanings!
@bruh
Sorry. It sounded like you supported Big Tech and were against any restrictions placed on them by the EU or any other government.
@Tom, do you know any Firefox extension to save an entire website correctly? I am trying to save an entire site with “print, save as pdf”, however it looks so terrible! Thanks in advance.
Hello there @An old friend :)
For what I know saving an entire site requires a dedicated software, I used one at the time but that was long ago, cannot remember the name, but search engines should list them all.
Concerning an extension, be it a Firefox one, that would be able of saving an entire Website, I know none, not even sure this is feasible with an extension : we do mean saving an *entire* website, don’t we? That may mean far more than printable pages and may come up to GBs of data.
Now, if the aim is to save specific pages of a Website, I could but advise the ‘SingleFile’ Firefox extension, though the Web pages will be saved in HTML format, not PDF, perfectly readable off-line.
To save Web pages in the PDF format, perhaps the Firefox ‘Print Friendly’ extension could be advisable, yet in my experience it is not as worthy as its previous versions were, ties to Google in its PDF rendering.
Personally when I wish to save a Web page in a PDF I use a dedicated bookmarklet. Cannot publish it here because the comments gets blocked even though I’ve written the bookmarklet within brackets …
This renders a clean PDF with the possibility of editing it before downloading it. If you wish to save the Webpage as is, you do know that Firefox’s ‘Print’ feature will do that, yet the result is hazardous in terms of display output.
Hope that helps.
@Tom, thanks for your help, you have made my day a little more happy! Thanks again!
I’m not Tom but maybe it can help.
You have a very nice full page screenshot function built in to the browser. It just isn’t easy to get to.
Tools menu -> Browser Tools -> Web Developer Tools
Click the “Costumize Developer Tools” right of dev toolbar, look under Available Toolbox Buttons, check the box “Take a screenshot of the entire page”
and you’ll see a camera button added. Click the camera and it will save the page.
I am still on v115 ESR so I can’t tell for sure if newest versions still offer this option.
@anon, thank you too for your good help, it has been useful too!
The EU fines USA companies in order to get some money. Here in Europe there aren’t good software companies, neither good manufacturer companies. We only have social rights payed by our taxes to give money to people around the world. And we will continue fining all USA companies just to destroy ourselves and our nations.
@Make Europe Destroyed Again go back to /pol/ oh wait lol
EU doesn’t fine countries but companies, whatever their nationalities. It’s not Europe’s fault if the naughty rascals in terms of a company’s policies and practices happen to be essentially American, at this time anyway. The EU has already fined companies other than American ones and, who knows, the naughty leadership might be one day Chinese, Russian …
Do these fines actually stick though? Rarely.
I think the same, fines are made to get money, a new way to steal inside the law.