EU fines Apple $570 million, Meta $228 million for breaching bloc rules

Tech giants Apple and Meta have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the European Union. As part of the sanctions, while Apple has been fined $570 million, Meta has been slapped with a fine of $228 million to make the tech firms comply with the bloc's rules, and curb the power of Big Tech. The hefty fines risk increasing tensions between the EU and the Trump administration.

"Today's announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free," Apple said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The company aims to challenge the EU fine.

Apple was charged with breaching the DMA rules as the company does not allow users to sideload apps on the iPhone. Sideloading means being able to download alternative app stores and apps from the web. The EU competition watchdog has instructed Apple to remove the restrictions that prevent app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store.

Meta, on the other hand, was required to provide consumers with the option to use its services without having their personal data combined across different platforms it owns. However, it failed to do so under the rules of the DMA, and was hence fined.

Meta, in a statement to Reuters, said, "The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards."