« Absolutely, absolutely no »: European Commission fines « Apple » and « Meta », denies revenge on duties
The European Commission has imposed fines on the US technology giants « Apple » and « Meta » for violations of the Digital Markets Act on Wednesday, categorically denying them to be revenge for the increase of duties on the import of a number of goods introduced by US President Donald Trump.
The two companies have been investigated for more than a year for various violations, with their determined fines being lower than the sanctions imposed by the European Commission so far.
The infringement of « Apple »
The iPhone manufacturer will have to pay EUR 500 million to the European budget, so it does not inform users who download applications from his App Store store that they can download alternative offers free of charge outside the applications.
« Due to a number of restrictions imposed by Apple, application developers cannot fully benefit from the benefits of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store. Similarly, consumers cannot take advantage of alternative and cheaper offers, as » Apply Communication « to inform the users » Wednesday.
Meta’s Guards
Meta, the mother company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsup, is fined € 200 million because of the « consent or payment » model, where users who pay subscription are entitled to less personalized ads.
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Currently, according to the European Commission, the combination of personal data from the various Facebook profiles and Instagram for users who do not agree that their data will be used to customize ads, does not meet the requirements of the law.
The Commission believes that the advertising model « does not give the users the necessary choice to choose a service that uses less than their personal data, but otherwise is equivalent to the » Custom Ads « service. The Meta model also does not allow users to exercise their right to combine their personal data. »
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It is added that the fine for Meta is less because it has proposed a new advertising model, which is now evaluated by the European Commission.
Duties
A spokesman for the European Commission categorically denied the fine of the two companies to be revenge or a warning to press pressure on the current trade negotiations between the EU and the US.
| « This is absolutely, an absolutely separate question. These decisions have nothing to do with the negotiations on duties. We apply legislation that is in force in the same way, » the spokesman said. |
For the first time in the last 10 years, however, a decision on competitiveness policy, which is such a public interest, has not been announced personally by a European Commissioner. Instead, the Commission publishes only a press release that does not make political applications.
Fines against US technology giants are considered one of the strong weapons in the negotiations that the EU is currently led by Donald Trump’s administration to reduce or cancel the duties that he has introduced over the past two months.
The European Commission has accused of Apple in violation of competition rules
Currently, European imports on aluminum and steel and cars are taxed with additional duties of 25 and 20 percent respectively, while duties of 20% on a large number of other goods known as « so -called reciprocal duties » are temporarily deferred by Washington to allow negotiation.
| « The size of the fines is determined on the basis of certain criteria such as the severity and duration of the violations, as well as in view of the fact that the Digital Services Act has been new and has been in force for less than a year, » said a spokesman for the European Commission. |
He added that if the two companies do not eliminate the violations for 60 days, they would be threatened with the determination of daily fines that can reach up to 5% of their global daily turnover.
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The spokesman has rejected doubts that the committee is now more cautious in sanctioning violations so as not to annoy the White House further.
Wrath across the ocean
Even before the European Commission’s decision was officially announced, Apple said it would appeal him to court.
| « Today’s reports are another example of the fact that the European Commission is unfairly focused on a series of solutions that are bad for the confidentiality and security of our consumers, bad for the products and forces us to provide our technology for free, » the company said. |
« We spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have requested. Despite the countless meetings, the committee continues to move the goals at every step, » Apple adds.
| Meta’s chief employee Joel Kaplan said the European Commission is trying to prevent successful US businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to work at different standards. « |
« This is not just a fine; the committee that forces us to change our business model, effectively imposes a duties on billions of dollars on Meta, while requiring us to offer a lower quality service. And through the unjust restriction of personalized advertising, the European Commission also harms European businesses and economies, » Kaplan said.
