Apple and Meta’s EU Dispute over €700M Digital Markets Act Fines
In April 2025, the European Commission (EC) delivered its first Digital Markets Act (DMA) enforcement actions, imposing €500 million on Apple and €200 million on Meta for non‑compliance. These landmark penalties underscore the EU’s determination to curb gatekeeper practices and reshape digital competition.
Background: The Digital Markets Act Framework
Effective from March 6, 2024, the DMA designates major platforms as gatekeepers if they control critical digital ecosystems. Gatekeepers must adhere to a set of obligations—ranging from interoperability to anti‑steering rules—aimed at preventing exploitative dependencies on their services. Failure to comply triggers fines up to 10 percent of global annual turnover and “periodic penalty payments” of up to 5 percent of daily revenue until full compliance.
Violation Details and Fine Breakdown
- Apple (€500 million): Breach of anti‑steering obligation by restricting developers from informing users about alternative payment channels or redirecting them to external offers.
- Meta (€200 million): Breach of the personal data choice requirement—its “Consent or Pay” ad model lacked an equivalent, less‑data‑intensive option for users who declined cross‑service data aggregation.
The EC has given both firms 60 days to implement corrective measures or face daily penalty payments. Apple must lift technical and contractual barriers that block in‑app communications directing users to external billing, while Meta must present an ad service that uses strictly local or cohort‑based signals without cross‑platform profiling.
Technical Deep Dive: Anti‑Steering Mechanisms in the App Store
Apple’s App Store enforces in‑app purchase (IAP) exclusivity through its StoreKit API, mandatory code signing, and hardware‑level attestation of transaction receipts. Developers can only embed a SKOverlay interface, which precludes custom UI elements linking to external payment portals. The DMA challenge revolves around implementing a “link-out” mechanism while preserving device security and preventing man‑in‑the‑middle attacks.
Industry experts suggest leveraging signed URL tokens—whitelisted at build time—to validate external purchase links. However, Apple argues that any link-out increases phishing and sideloading risks. EU regulators counter that robust cryptographic nonce exchange and public key pinning can mitigate such threats.
Data Privacy and Advertising Models in Meta’s Ecosystem
Meta’s current ad infrastructure spans Facebook, Instagram, and parent‑level integration with WhatsApp. Its Conversion API 2.0 (CAPI2) uses server‑side event forwarding and hashed identifiers to correlate ad clicks with offline conversions. Under the DMA, users must choose a purely contextual or cohort‑based advertising stream. Meta’s initial “personalized vs paid” dichotomy lacked a neutral, data‑minimal alternative; its revised model deploys Topics API style signals and on‑device aggregation, but the EC is still evaluating its efficacy.
Expert Opinions and Industry Impact
Dr. Elena Mancini, Director of the European Data Protection Board’s research arm, comments: “The DMA’s opt‑in data choice enshrines the principle of data minimization. Meta’s solution must ensure functional parity while truly limiting data flows across properties.”
Catherine de Bolle, former EU Competition Chief, adds: “This is a watershed moment. Gatekeepers can no longer rely on opaque platform architectures to preserve market lock‑in.” Tech trade groups in the US have decried the rulings as “discriminatory,” signaling potential transatlantic friction.
Future Enforcement and Global Context
Beyond these rulings, the EC is investigating other gatekeepers—Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—under DMA interoperability and data‑sharing mandates. Concurrently, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is drafting its own gatekeeper code, mirroring DMA obligations. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly reviewing similar anti‑steering clauses for mobile ecosystems.
Apple has filed an appeal at the EU’s General Court, arguing that changing low‑level security constructs mid‑stream violates legal certainty. Meta continues discussions with the EC, furnishing telemetry data and A/B test results for its new ad model. Both companies face daily fines potentially exceeding tens of millions if non‑compliance persists beyond the 60‑day deadline.
Key Takeaways
- DMA enforcement is operational and uncompromising, with structured fines and daily penalties.
- Technical solutions exist to balance security with user choice—gatekeepers must adopt them or pay the price.
- Global regulators are watching: today’s DMA rulings may set precedents for other jurisdictions.