Apple and Meta hit with $798,000,000 fine after breaking vital competition law

Two of America's biggest tech companies have been landed with significant fines for breaching new anti-competition laws set by the European Union, as Apple and Meta face fines totally $798,000,000.

Tech giant Apple and social media behemoth Meta are among the most valuable public companies in the world, sitting first and seventh respectively with a combined market cap of $4.4 trillion according to CompaniesMarketCap, yet that doesn't make them immune to some hefty fines.

Apple in particular is no stranger to class action lawsuits as customers have complained about various parts of their products, but their most recent financial hit involves anti-competitive actions made by the company that now breach vital new EU laws.

As reported by Sky News, both Apple and Meta have been charged and fined by the EU for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which introduced rules intended to increase the choice and freedom of consumers in the digital world.

Apple and Meta have been fined significantly for breaching new Digital Markets Act rules set by the EU (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Apple have been accused by the EU of preventing app makers from pointing customers towards cheaper options outside of the App Store - most commonly for in-app purchases or subscriptions - whereas Meta's fine sources from users being forced to pay to remove ads on Facebook and Instagram.

When it comes to the fines themselves, the iPhone maker has been landed with a €500,000,000 ($568,957,669) figure, whereas Meta has to cough up a comparatively measly €200,000,000 ($227,583,067) for its infraction.

Both companies were warned by the European Commission in June and July last year that they were in breach of the newly established DMA rules, and they not have 60 days to comply with the fines or risk additional periodic penalty payments.

Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission, outlined following the decision: "The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free choice from their users and are required to change their behavior. We have a duty to protect the rights of citizens and innovate businesses in Europe and I am fully committed to this objective."

The European Commission has called its action against Meta and Apple a means of protecting the rights of citizens across the EU (European Union)

As expected though, the ruling hasn't gone down too well with either company, in addition to US President Donald Trump.

President Trump outlined in February that his administration would consider "responsive actions like tariffs" if the European Commission went through with the ruling as they have done, whereas chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan at Meta has claimed that the fines have been designed to 'handicap' successful American businesses in favor of European or Chinese alternatives.

Apple also believe that they were 'unfairly targeted' by the fines, and they had "spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law," although clearly it wasn't enough to satisfy the Commission.