EU Fines Apple and Meta Over DMA Violations

Foo Yun Chee and Jan Strupczewski (European Commission, MacRumors, Hacker News):

Apple was fined 500 million euros ($570 million) on Wednesday and Meta 200 million euros, as European Union antitrust regulators handed out the first sanctions under landmark legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech.

[…]

The EU competition watchdog said Apple must remove technical and commercial restrictions that prevent app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store.

[…]

Apple avoided a fine in a separate investigation into its browser options on iPhones after making changes that allow users to switch to a rival browser or search engine more easily. Regulators said these comply with the DMA and closed the investigation on Wednesday.

[…]

The iPhone maker was still charged with breaching DMA rules on the grounds it hindered users from sideloading, a practice that involves downloading alternative app stores and apps from the web.

Jacob Parry (Hacker News):

In addition to the fine, Apple has been issued with a cease-and-desist order requiring it to make further product changes by late June. If the firm fails to comply, the Commission can fine it for every additional day it is in breach of the law.

[…]

Finally, the Commission opted to escalate its enforcement effort against Apple’s app store, issuing the iPhone-maker with a charge sheet concerning its dealings with alternative app marketplaces. These preliminary findings still need to be investigated further but could mean more DMA fines for Apple down the line.

John Gruber:

Apple booked about $184B in profit last year, so this fine is about 0.3% of that. Maybe Apple just considers this the new cost of doing business in the EU? […] Something, not nothing, but definitely not a big deal. Teresa Ribera, the EC competition chief, is clearly trying to thread a political needle here.

Previously:

• Apple’s DMA Compliance Criticized
• European Commission Specification Proceedings
• EU Fines Apple $2 Billion Over Anti-Steering Rules

Antitrust App Marketplaces App Store Apple Digital Markets Act (DMA) European Union Lawsuit Legal Meta Sideloading

DOJ Wins Google Ads Antitrust Case

David McCabe (PDF, via Hacker News):

Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in aruling that Google had broken the law to build its dominance over the largely invisible system of technology that places advertisements on pages across the web. The Justice Department and a group of states had sued Google, arguing that its monopoly in ad technology allowed the company to charge higher prices and take a bigger portion of each sale.

Remedies have not been announced yet.

Juli Clover:

Publishers that wanted to use Google’s ad exchange were also required to use its ad server, which disadvantaged competing platforms. Google’s “First Look” feature gave its ad exchange the first right of refusal for impressions, and “Last Look” let its platform assess bids from competitors before making its own bid.

Google later rolled out Unified Pricing Rules limiting the pricing strategies that publishers used to reduce dependence on Google ads and screen out low-quality content, which the court says favored Google’s ad tech growth while harming rival ad tech products.

Juli Clover:

OpenAI would consider purchasing the Chrome browser if Google is forced to sell it as a remedy for anticompetitive search practices, ChatGPT product lead Nick Turley said today.

Previously:

• Mozilla Also Defends Google Revenue Sharing Agreement
• Apple to Defend Google Revenue Sharing Agreement
• DOJ Wants Google to Sell Chrome and De-Google Android
• Google Search and Ads Monopoly
• DOJ Investigating Apple-Google Default Search Engine Deal

Advertising AdWords Antitrust Business Department of Justice (DOJ) Google Google Chrome Lawsuit Legal OpenAI