London – European Union Sentinel Paid apple and meta On Wednesday, as hundreds of crores of euros, he carried forward the enforcement of the 27-nation Digital Competition Rules. The European Commission fined Apple 500 million euros ($ 571 million) on Apple to prevent app manufacturers from pointing to cheap options outside their app store. The Commission, which is the Executive Branch of the European Union, also fined the meta platforms 200 million euros ($ 228 million) as it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between advertisements to see or pay for them to avoid.
The punishment blockbuster multibillion-euros was shortened by the fine that the Commission had slapped large technical companies in the first antitrust cases.
The Commission said that Apple and Meta have to follow the decisions within 60 days or the risk of unspecified “periodic punishment”.
Decisions were expected to come in March, but the authorities clearly closed a growing trans-eleventh trade war with President Trump, which has repeatedly complained about the rules of Brussels affecting American companies.
Penalty was issued under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, also known as DMA. It is a comprehensive rule book that gives consumers and businesses more alternatives and is the amount of a set of doons designed to prevent “gatekeeper”, a larger technology to digital markets.
The DMA attempts to ensure that “the complete control of the citizens is used online when and how their data is used online, and businesses can communicate freely with their own customers,” Henna Virkunen, the executive vice -chairman of the commission for tech sovereignty, said in a statement.
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“The decisions adopted today revealed that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free option from their users and need to change their behavior,” Virkunan said.
Both companies indicated that they would appeal.
“The European Commission is trying to obstruct successful American businesses, allowing Chinese and European companies to work under different standards,” the Meta’s Chief Global Affairs officer Joel Coupon said in a statement provided by the US Tech giant. “This is not just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change its business model effectively applies a multi-aerb-dollar tariff on the meta, while we need to offer an inferior service. And the European Commission is also damaging European businesses and economies by individually restricted individual advertisements.”
Apple accused the Commission of “wrongly targeted” the iPhone manufacturer, and said “it” continues to carry forward the target positions “despite the company’s efforts to follow the rules.
In the App Store case, the Commission accused the iPhone manufacturer of implementing unfair rules, allowing the app developers to stop independently from steering consumers to other channels.
In the provisions of DMA, developers need to inform customers of cheap purchasing options and direct them to those offers.
The Commission said that it ordered Apple to lift the technical and commercial sanctions that prevents developers from steering users to other channels and “non-transport” conduct.
Apple said that it has “spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to follow this law, none of which have asked for our users.”
“Despite countless meetings, the Commission continued to move the target positions at every step,” the company said.
Apple has also faced a comprehensive no -confidence trial in the US, where Justice department alleged The California company was illegally engaged in an attempt to create a “gap around its smartphone monopoly” and maximizes its profits at the cost of consumers. Fifteen states and Columbia district have joined the suit as a plaintiff.
The European Union’s meta investigation focuses on the strategy of the company, which follows strict European data privacy rules by giving users the option to pay for Facebook and Instagram advertising versions.
Users can pay at least 10 euros ($ 11) a month to avoid being targeted by advertisements based on their personal data. The US tech veteran rolled out the option after the European Union’s apex court pronounced the verdict, which users should first get consent before showing advertisements, in a decision that threatened their business models of advertisements based on online interests and digital activity of individual users.
Regulators raised the issue with a model of meta, saying that it does not allow users to exercise their rights of “independently consent” to allow their personal data from their various services, including Facebook Marketplace, WhatsApp and Messenger, which are combined for personal advertisements.
Meta gave a third option in November, giving Facebook and Instagram users in Europe, if they do not want to pay for advertising membership, the option to see less personal advertising. The Commission said that it is currently “assessing this option” and continues to negotiate with Meta, and has asked the company to provide proof of the impact of the new option.
There is also European Commission Slap Google with antitrust penalty several timesRegarding the misuse of market dominance of its Android mobile phone operating system in 2018 with a record $ 5 billion fine in 2018.
