The EU Delays Antitrust Penalties For Apple And Meta

Summary: The EU has announced that it will delay the penalties against Apple and Meta as it pushes for a trade deal with the U.S. Both companies were fined last year for different offenses, and the penalties were going to go into effect soon.

Right now, things are pretty tense between the EU and certain large American brands. The EU is big on keeping big tech in check as far as its citizens’ safety and data privacy are concerned. This has led to some pretty hefty fines levied against companies such as Google, Apple, and Meta. Last year, the EU placed fines on both Meta and Apple for different shady practices.

In Apple’s case, the company was forcing each company producing apps for the App Store to use Apple’s payment system. It went so far as to block other companies from even advertising a third-party payment system.

As for Meta, the company charged users to get rid of ads. This happened after the company was forced to stop scooping up EU citizens’ data for targeted ads.

Both of these offenses earned the companies some hefty fines. The EU was preparing to issue cease and desist orders for both Apple and Meta. However, according to a report, some lawmakers in the European Parliament felt that this move might have been more political than ethical. As such, the EU has postponed its decision. We don’t know for how long.

What we do know is that the EU is looking to fast-track a trade deal with the U.S. President Donald Trump brought a 90-day pause to the tariffs, so things are still pretty much up in the air.

EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met with Trump recently to speak about the situation. Right now, we don’t know how much progress was made with the talks. An EC spokesperson said, “We’re currently working on the adoption of final decisions in the short term.” So, only time will tell what will happen with these companies.