London – European Union guards APED APPLE AND META Hundreds of millions of euros on Wednesday when they intensified the application of the digital competition rules of the 27 nations block. The European Commission imposed a fine of 500 million euros ($ 571 million) to Apple for preventing application manufacturers from pointing to users to cheaper options outside their App Store. The Commission, which is the EU executive arm, also by Meta Platforms 200 million euros ($ 228 million) because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.
The punishments were smaller than the successful multimillion -dollar fines of Euro that the commission has previously slapped the large technological companies in antitrust cases.
Apple and Meta have to comply with decisions within 60 days or the risk of “periodic payments” not specified, said the commission.
Decisions were expected to arrive in March, but officials apparently retained in the midst of a growing transatlantic commercial war with President Trump, who has repeatedly complained about regulations that affect US companies.
The sanctions were issued under the EU digital market law, also known as DMA. It is a radical rules book that is equivalent to a set of not doing and not doing to provide consumers and companies with more options and prevention of large “guardians” of digital market technology in curves.
The DMA seeks to guarantee that “citizens have total control over when and how their online data is used, and companies can communicate freely with their own customers,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of the Commission for Technological Sovereignty.
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“The decisions taken today find that both Apple and Meta have tasks of this free choice of their users and are required to change their behavior,” said Virkkun.
Both companies indicated that they would appeal.
“The European Commission is trying to harm successful American companies while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” said Meta Meta, Joel Kaplan officer, Joel Kaplan, in a statement provided by the US technological giant. “It is not just a fine; the commission forces us to change our business model effectively imposes a multimillionaire rate to the goal while requesting a lower service. And unfairly restricting the European and European start -up.”
Apple accused the commission of “unjustly pointing to the iPhone manufacturer, and said that” objectives continue to move “despite the company’s efforts to comply with the rules.
In the case of the application store, the Commission accused the iPhone manufacturer of imposing unfair rules that prevent application developers from freely conducting consumers to other channels.
Among the provisions of the DMA are the requirements to allow developers to inform customers about the cheapest purchase options and direct them to those sacrifices.
The commission said it ordered Apple to eliminate the technical and commercial restrictions that prevent developers from conducting users to other channels and that they end the behavior “not satisfied.”
Apple said that “he has spent fighters of thousands of engineering hours and made gearboxes to comply with this law, none or what our users have asked.”
“Despite the innumerable meetings, the commission continues to move the objectives of objectives in each step of the road,” said the company.
Apple has also faced a wide antitrust demand in the United States, where Alleged justice That the California company was illegally dedicated to anti -competitive behavior in an effort to build a “pit around its smartphone monopoly” and maximize their profits at the expense of consumers. Fifteen states and the Columbia district have joined demand as plaintiffs.
The EU research goal focused on the company’s strategy to comply with strict European data privacy rules by giving users the option to pay versions without Facebook and Instagram advertising.
Users could pay at least 10 euros ($ 11) per month to avoid being attacked by ads based on their personal data. The United States technological giant launched the option after the main court of the European Union first ruled the consent before showing ads to users, in a decision that threatened its adaptation business model based on the online interest of individual users and digital activity.
Regulators are emitted with the goal model, saying that it cannot be done not to do not.
Meta implemented a third option in November, giving Facebook and Instagram users in Europe the option to see less personalized ads if they do not want to pay a subscription without ads. The commission said it is “currently evaluating” this option and continues to maintain talks with a goal, and has asked the company to provide evidence of the impact of the new option.
The European Commission also has He hit Google with antitrust sanctions several timesWhich includes a record fine of $ 5 billion collected in 2018 for the abuse of the market of the market market market of its Android Mobile Phone operating system.