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The European Union risks incurring the wrath of Donald Trump after issuing €700m (£525m) in fines against technology giants Apple and Meta.
Brussels on Wednesday announced a €500m fine for the iPhone giant for breaking its rules around app stores, while demanding €200m from Meta over a dispute around its offer of an ad-free Facebook and Instagram subscription in the EU.
The fines were brought under the Digital Markets Act, the EU’s new competition laws for the internet that have attracted the ire of US politicians.
Mr Trump and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have argued the rules unfairly target America’s technology giants. Mr Trump has likened the EU’s fines on technology companies to a form of “tariff”.
EU officials accused Apple of implementing “technical and commercial restrictions” through its iPhone App Store that make it harder for developers to point users to alternative ways of downloading their apps or paying for subscriptions, avoiding the technology giant’s cut of their fees.
They also argued Meta had breached its rules when it offered EU users the option to pay a subscription to remove personalised adverts from its social media apps in March last year.
EU officials said Meta should have provided a free option which used less personal information from its users instead. Meta agreed to make further changes in November, but argued the EU’s demands went “beyond what is written in the law”.
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s global affairs chief, accused the EU of attempting to “handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards”.
He added that the cost of re-engineering its service in the EU “effectively imposes a multibillion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service”.
An Apple spokesman said the company would appeal the decision.
They said; “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.
“We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for. Despite countless meetings, the commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way.
“We will appeal and continue engaging with the commission in service of our European customers.”
Despite the fines, the EU also said it would stop an investigation into Apple’s use of default apps, such as Safari, after it agreed to make it easier for users to change their settings, pick alternatives or uninstall some Apple-made apps.