Apple and Meta have both faced two of the first fines issued by the EU Commission under its new Digital Markets Act (DMA), amounting to 500 million and 200 million euros respectively.

The DMA was a landmark act ratified in 2024 intended to quell the mounting power of Big Tech organisations across their respective markets.

Following year long investigations into each company, the European Commission has decided to fine both Apple and Meta for infringing on the DMA, which intends to enable smaller businesses to enter markets dominated by big tech companies.

Specifically, the EU hit out against Apple’s restrictions on app developers that stop them from directing users to deals outside of the firm’s App Store.

Apple’s App Store practices have long been under regulatory fire for preventing app developers from offering cheaper alternatives outside of the App Store, which often takes a large commission off of purchases.

Further, Apple introduced a new fee to app developers to use Apple’s App Store, called the Core Technology Fee. By disallowing alterative app stores, this forces developers to pay the fee to have their apps available across all iOS devices.

While Apple’s changes to its browser settings saved them from a DMA breach in this arena, it will need to change its model and pay 500M euros for not allowing users to download alternative app stores on its devices.

For Meta, the commission said that its controversial pay-or-consent model breached the DMA. The ruling for this was established back in March 2024, and Meta had been in discussions with the EU around a new approach.

The model was introduced in response to an EU GDPR ruling saying that Meta needed consent from Facebook and Instagram users to use their personal data for targeted advertising – Meta offered an ad-free subscription for a price, or people could forfeit their data for a free version of the platforms with ads.

Both companies will have two months to comply with the new rules or face further fines for each day of infringement past the deadline.

As part of its decision, the EU Commission has removed Facebook Marketplace from the DMA’s reach as it no longer had the reach and domination required under the act.

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“Apple and Meta have fallen short of compliance with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers on their platforms,” EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Riber said in a press release.

“As a result, we have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules.”

An Apple spokesperson said that the company intends to appeal the decision while it continues talks with the Commission around improving its compliance, saying the Commission “continues to move the goal post every step of the way.”

Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan described the decision as a “multi-billion-dollar tariff” in a statement, saying that the ruling as pointedly “attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”

The politicisation of the ruling is not surprising given it comes just after the US President said that it would consider retaliating against any disciplinary actions against US tech companies taken by foreign entities as the global trade conflict continues.