The European Commission announced, Wednesday, April 23, important financial sanctions against American Apple and Meta technologies (Facebook, Instagram). Apple is inflicted a fine of 500 million euros for abusive clauses in its App Store application shop, to the detriment of application suppliers and their customers. Meta will have to pay 200 million euros for violating a rule framing the use of personal data.
These sanctions are the first pronounced within the framework of the new European regulation on digital markets, which came into force last year to end the abuse of the dominant position of the tech giants.
They work a year after the opening of procedures against the two Californian groups, but especially at a delicate moment for transatlantic relations. The European Union is indeed in full negotiations with the US administration to obtain customs duties imposed by Donald Trump.
The American president regularly denounces the taxes, fines and regulatory constraints imposed by Europe on American digital services. The amount of fines, however, appears moderate compared to those imposed so far on the “Big Tech” by the EU. He should not scare Apple and Meta who displayed an annual net profit of 93.7 and 62.4 billion dollars respectively (or about 82 and 55 billion euros).
The Commission claims to seek the compliance of companies through dialogue, punishment being a means of deterrence, but not an objective of the settlement. However, the bill could quickly fly if Apple and Meta did not show good will. The two companies “Are required to comply with the decisions of the Commission within 60 days, failing which they are exposed to periodic on -calls”warns the commission.
Apple will appeal
Contrary to use, the announcements were made by simple press release, without a press conference of the European executive. “Today's decisions send a strong and clear message”said competition commissioner Teresa Ribera, in a press release, qualifying the sanctions of “Farms and balanced”.
Apple said “Unjustly targeted” And immediately announced that the group would appeal while continuing dialogue with regulators. Meta was even more virulent. “The European Commission is trying to put sticks in prosperous American business wheels while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate according to different standards”said Joel Kaplan, Director of International Affairs of the Group, former member of the Republican Party and ally of Donald Trump.
Apple is sanctioned for restrictions in its App Store application store. According to the Commission, the apple brand hinders the capacity of the suppliers of applications distributed in its online store to communicate directly with end users to possibly offer lower rates on other channels. Meta is targeted for breach of the rule which forces him to request the consent of users in order to be able to combine personal data from his various services, such as Facebook and Instagram, for advertising profiling purposes.
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The Mark Zuckerberg group, however, proposed a modification of its offer to comply, hence a financial sanction below that imposed on Apple. This proposal, currently studied by the commission services, could end the procedure if it is deemed satisfactory.
Source: Lemonde