First Digital Markets Act enforcement cases: EU fines Apple and Meta
Posted: April 29, 2025
On 23 April 2025, the European Commission announced its first-ever fines under the Digital Markets Act (DMA): €500 million against Apple and €200 million against Meta.
The DMA regulates the “gatekeepers” whose products are used by millions of people and thousands of businesses every day. These first enforcement actions under the law suggest that the EU is applying an increasingly strict approach to online privacy and competition among big tech firms.
What is the DMA?
The DMA is a cornerstone of the EU’s digital strategy, targeting the largest platforms with the most substantial impact on the online market, such as Apple, Meta, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Microsoft, and TikTok parent company ByteDance.
The DMA covers areas such as:
- Preventing self-preferencing
- Ensuring interoperability between services
- Allowing fair access for business users (like app developers)
- Enabling consumers to easily switch platforms or uninstall pre-loaded software
- Restricting the combination of personal data from across gatekeepers’ platforms without valid consent
As such, the DMA aims to achieve a more competitive online market by protecting both consumer rights and online privacy.
Timeline of Apple and Meta fines
Investigations into Apple and Meta began shortly after the DMA compliance deadline.
On 25 March 2024, the Commission officially opened non-compliance investigations into Apple’s App Store rules and Meta’s “pay or consent” model, alongside investigations into Alphabet’s practices in the Google Play Store.
The final decisions into Apple and Meta were announced 23 April 2025. The investigation into Alphabet is ongoing, with the Commission having provisionally found evidence that the Google Play Store violates the DMA.
Apple’s fine: ‘Anti-steering’ rules
Apple’s €500 million penalty relates to rules designed to empower third-party app developers operating on gatekeepers’ marketplaces (in this case, the App Store).
Under Article 5(4) of the DMA, gatekeepers must allow developers using their app stores to inform customers, free of charge, about alternative purchase options outside the app store. Gatekeepers must also allow developers to “steer” users towards their own platforms or websites.
The Commission found that Apple implemented various technical and commercial restrictions that effectively prevented developers from fully benefiting from this right.
The limitations imposed by Apple allegedly hindered developers’ ability to communicate directly with users about cheaper alternatives or different subscription models available outside the iOS ecosystem.
Apple failed to convince the Commission that these restrictions were objectively necessary or proportionate. Consequently, alongside the fine, Apple has been ordered to remove these restrictions within 60 days.
Meta’s fine: ‘Consent or pay’
Meta’s €200 million fine relates to its implementation of the “consent or pay” model on Facebook and Instagram, specifically concerning the combination of user data for targeted advertising purposes.
Meta’s “consent or pay” model, introduced in November 2023, presented users with a binary choice:
- Consent to Meta targeting them with ads, including combining their data from across Meta’s platforms, or
- Pay a monthly subscription for an ad-free experience
The Commission argued that under the DMA, if a gatekeeper relies on users’ consent to combine personal data across its core platform services, it must offer an equivalent alternative that involves less intrusive processing of personal data.
The Commission concluded this failed to comply because it did not provide the required free, equivalent alternative using less data, nor did it ensure that consent to the data combination itself was freely given.
Importantly, this finding covers the specific period from March 2024 (when DMA obligations became binding) until November 2024. Since then, Meta has introduced a revised “consent or pay” model which is still under assessment.
Shaping digital markets
These first DMA enforcement actions demonstrate the Commission’s readiness to use its new powers and establish precedents under the DMA.
The fines are relatively small for companies as large as Apple and Meta—penalties of up to 10% of global annual turnover are available under the DMA. However, the corrective actions required by both companies take aim at core elements of their business models.
