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.
Cost of doing business They should start skimming 20% from these companies war chests
The important part of these are the “do, don’t” orders of business conduct. Then on top small fine. Hence it isn’t merely cost of doing business. The real stinger is “you can’t offer choice of tracking or pay up. You must offer free choice to decline for consent based operations”.
If they ignore the “do’s and dont’s” compliance order, then the big fines come out.
Name one.
edit: that’s what I thought, silence.
Too little
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He was fined €240M? What had he done?
My bet would be tax evasion and money laundering. ;)
It’s hard to wrap one’s head around just how freaking rich the mega wealthy are. The 1% is not even the enemy at this point, they are closer to most of us than they are to the billionaire class.
Not a huge blow to companies this large sadly.
I think it must be seen not in light of the monetary blow, but in light of the fact that the EU is pushing hard for these actors to change directions and to end some of their abusive behaviour.
Traffic fines are made to bankrupt drivers or to finance the state, but to encourage people to drive safely.
Not huge, indeed. It is possible, and desirable, that the EU is playing strategy with them. Maybe they hit softly now, just to show they mean to go on this regulation-path they choose, and to give a “warning”. Maybe they considered a too aggressive fine could make things worse. I’m not sure, just thinking.
