The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to improve competition in tech and benefit the consumer, became law last May. The EU deemed the first gatekeepers under the new legislation to be companies and services so big in the region that they had to make significant changes to improve competition while also better serving the interests of consumers.
Apple and Meta are two of the designated gatekeepers under the DMA, each operating services that are, in turn, defined as gatekeepers. Once the DMA became law, the companies had to make changes to these services, but the EU hasn’t been necessarily happy with the progress.
Apple and Meta are now facing fines, which could be announced in the coming weeks. However, the EU will reportedly award modest fines to both tech giants for alleged DMA violations.
The news comes from people with direct knowledge of the upcoming fines who talked to Reuters.
That’s good news for Apple and Meta for the time being, though nothing is confirmed. Things may change when the EU announces any DMA-based action against perceived offenders. The fines may be modest, but the DMA has provisions that allow the EU to impose more massive penalties. Companies are at risk of paying as much as 10% of their global annual sales for violations.
Reuters reports that the EU wants companies to comply with the law rather than imposing big fines. That’s one explanation for the modest fines that could become official soon.
Also, the duration of the alleged violation has been rather short, considering that the DMA came into law less than a year ago.
The current geopolitical climate may be another reason. The Trump administration threatened more tariffs against countries that fine US companies.
It’s unclear what DMA violations the EU has found. The European Commission will no doubt announce the reasons why Apple and Meta are being fined. The Commission has previously said it would investigate big tech companies for the changes they made to their services under the DMA requirements. Apple has been one clear target for the EU.
Reuters notes that Meta and Apple pushed back against DMA compliance requests in recent reports. Meta said it has continued to receive demands from regulators going beyond what is written in the law despite trying to comply with the DMA.
Apple said that DMA-imposed changes to its software put users and developers in danger. As a longtime European user of Apple products, including the iPhone and the App Store, I’ve routinely said that I don’t appreciate what the DMA is doing to my iPhone experience. I do not care for third-party iPhone app stores, third-party payment systems, and sideloading.
Similarly, I’m a WhatsApp user who isn’t thrilled about Meta opening the chat platform to third-party services because the DMA requires it. Again, I say that as a European user who relies on WhatsApp more than iMessage to talk to friends and family.
With that in mind, I can’t wait to see what sort of modest DMA fines Apple and Meta will be getting. It won’t be long until we find out, as Reuters says a decision must come down this month.
