EU Fines Apple, Meta          04/23 05:30

   European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of euros 
Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc's digital 
competition rules.

   LONDON (AP) -- European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of 
millions of euros Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation 
bloc's digital competition rules.

   The European Commission imposed a 500 million euro ($571 million) fine on 
Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside 
its App Store.

   The commission, which is the EU's executive arm, also fined Meta Platforms 
200 million euros because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose 
between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.

   The punishments were smaller than the blockbuster multibillion-euro fines 
that the commission has previously slapped on Big Tech companies in anti-trust 
cases.

   The decisions were expected to come in March, but officials apparently held 
off amid an escalating trans-Atlantic trade war with U.S. President Donald 
Trump, who has repeatedly complained about regulations from Brussels affecting 
American companies.

   The penalties were issued under the EU's Digital Markets Act, also known as 
the DMA. It's a sweeping rulebook that amounts to a set of do's and don'ts 
designed to give consumers and businesses more choice and prevent Big Tech 
"gatekeepers" from cornering digital markets.

   The DMA seeks to ensure "that citizens have full control over when and how 
their data is used online, and businesses can freely communicate with their own 
customers," Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice-president for tech 
sovereignty, said in a statement.

   "The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away 
this free choice from their users and are required to change their behavior," 
Virkkunen said.

   Apple accused the commission of "unfairly targeting" the iPhone maker, 
saying it has "spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens 
of changes to comply with this law."

   Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a statement said the 
"Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while 
allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards."