Apple App Store restrictions
The EC can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global annual turnover, which would amount to many billions for Apple and Meta. Reuters reported that the relatively modest fines are “due to the short period of the breaches, a focus on compliance rather than sanctions, and a desire to avoid possible retaliation from [President Donald] Trump.”
Ribera said the EC took “firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules.”
The EC said Apple is required to let app developers “inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases.” But because of “a number of restrictions imposed by Apple, app developers cannot fully benefit from the advantages of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store,” the European regulator said. “Similarly, consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers.”
Apple “failed to demonstrate that these restrictions are objectively necessary and proportionate,” the EC said. The regulator “ordered Apple to remove the technical and commercial restrictions on steering and to refrain from perpetuating the non-compliant conduct in the future.”
EC: Meta ad model falls short
The DMA requires Meta to “seek users’ consent for combining their personal data between services,” the EC said. “Those users who do not consent must have access to a less personalized but equivalent alternative.”
With Meta’s “Consent or Pay” advertising model introduced in November 2023, “EU users of Facebook and Instagram had a choice between consenting to personal data combination for personalized advertising or paying a monthly subscription for an ad-free service,” the EC said.