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Apple, Meta Fined by EU, Ordered to Comply With Tech Competition Rules

Fines come as European officials pursue trade talks with the Trump administration

BRUSSELS—The European Union fined Apple AAPL 3.41%increase; green up pointing triangle and Meta META 3.22%increase; green up pointing triangle Platforms hundreds of millions of dollars and ordered the companies to comply with the bloc’s tech rules, a move that risks ratcheting up tensions with the Trump administration as EU officials pursue trade talks.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, on Wednesday slapped Apple with a 500 million euro fine, equivalent to about $570 million. It fined Meta €200 million.

The commission also issued cease-and-desist orders against both companies, which target business practices that are an important part of their revenue streams, and could have a bigger impact than the fines.

It ordered Apple to remove what it said were technical and commercial restrictions on app developers’ ability to inform users about cheaper and alternative ways to buy digital products outside the company’s App Store.

The commission also said it is still evaluating whether an option Meta has for several months given European users to see “less-personalized ads” on Instagram and Facebook without paying a subscription fee complies with the cease-and-desist order—raising the specter of further changes. The EU fine covers a period last year when Meta required European users to agree to seeing personalized ads on those apps, or pay for an ad-free subscription.

The actions against both companies come under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, a law passed in 2022 that seeks to make it easier for smaller companies to compete with global tech behemoths. Breaches of the law carry a potential fine of up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue. The fines issued Wednesday were far below that level—around 0.1% of each company’s annual revenue.

Apple said it would appeal the decision, which it said was another example of the commission unfairly targeting the company with moves that “are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free.”

Meta said it would likely appeal. “The commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multibillion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” said Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer.

The commission had last week delayed penalizing the two companies, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time, just as European officials were seeking to ramp up trade negotiations with the U.S. The announcement had initially been planned for April 15, one day after EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met with U.S. officials and two days before Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s meeting with President Trump.

Trump said after meeting with Meloni that he would have “very little problem” making a trade deal with the EU.

Mercedes-Benz chief warns EU and US tariffs have fuelled highest ‘complexity’ in three decades

China’s biggest car show hears German group’s ability ‘to import and export in all directions’ is affected

Mercedes-Benz’s chief executive has warned of the effects of a wave of tariffs and trade barriers as he pointed to the highest “complexity” the global automotive industry has faced in more than three decades.

Ola Källenius, head of the German carmaker, said the transition to electric vehicles alongside shifts in geopolitics and trade had fundamentally challenged his industry, saying regionalisation would remain a trend.

“I don’t think I’ve experienced a higher level of complexity in my 32 years in the business,” he told reporters gathered at Shanghai’s closely watched auto show.

The comments came as global carmakers have been forced to contend with higher EU tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China, as well as President Donald Trump’s looming 25 per cent tariffs on car exports to the US.

Källenius said his company was still committed to the US — where it sold 14 per cent of its cars last year — in the “long-term” and also reiterated calls for the EU to reach an agreement with Beijing over EV tariffs.

Mercedes and other German carmakers have repeatedly hit out at EU tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, which can reach up to 45 per cent. They fear their exports to China could suffer from retaliation by Beijing, and they also ship EVs from China to Europe themselves.

Källenius on Wednesday reiterated hopes that an “equitable and intelligent solution” would be found in continuing discussions between Brussels and Beijing.

That dispute has since been overshadowed by Trump’s trade war with China, which has snarled global trade after tariffs between the world’s two biggest economies this month spiralled to more than 100 per cent.

“We’re also dependent on the ability to import and export in all directions — if restrictions, tariffs, other trade barriers arise, that is not good for general global trade and would affect us as well,” he said. Källenius was among a group of automotive executives who met Trump last week to discuss tariffs.

Audi chief executive Gernot Döllner also hit out at restrictions as he spoke on the sidelines of China’s biggest car show, where global automakers have descended with new models in a market where sales have drastically slumped amid fierce competition from Chinese players.

“Tariffs are not the solution,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “They hinder innovation and they make a false competition,” he added. “We are producing in China for over 30 years now and we believe other solutions have to be found.”

“We see a discussion in the US and hope that we have stability there in the next month,” he added.

The Shanghai auto show alerted the world to the rapid development of Chinese EV technology when it was last held in the city in 2023. Tariffs on Chinese vehicles were imposed by the US and the EU in 2024 as automakers, including BYD, expanded overseas.

But that industry-specific dispute has since been overshadowed by the trade war between the US and China, which now threatens the future of the overall flow of goods between the two countries.

“No matter what the current political policymaking is, [the US] is an economy and market you want to have a very good presence in,” Källenius said.

He described China as “the most competitively intense market”.

“I can only repeat what history tells us: economies that are free and open and are exposed to the full force of competition are usually the ones that are most innovative,” he added. “We are open for competition in any direction through any country on a level playing field.”

US tariffs threaten lay-offs at UK’s luxury car plants, industry warns

Aston Martin and other marques that depend on American market may require aid such as furlough schemes, auto chief says

Staff at the UK’s high-end car plants could lose their jobs unless the government steps in with financial assistance such as furlough schemes to offset Donald Trump’s tariffs, the automotive industry has warned.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said the tariffs were having a “severe, significant and immediate” impact on luxury marques such as Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren that depend on wealthy American consumers.

Britain’s car industry is heavily reliant on exports to Europe but it is also exposed to the 25 per cent tariff the US president has imposed on imports of all foreign-made cars because the US is the largest market for the UK’s high-end brands.

Hawes told the House of Commons’ business select committee that some of the most expensive small-volume carmakers depend on the US for 30 per cent to 50 per cent of their exports.

The SMMT chief told MPs the people who bought luxury cars were sophisticated consumers, and would not necessarily pay the extra costs for the vehicles as a result of the tariffs.

“The assumption is that if you can afford £200,000 for a car, you can afford £250,000 for a car, but those high net-worth individuals are shrewd, they can see what’s happening,” he said.

“They see their vehicle potentially can be 25 per cent more expensive so they’ll hold off, they’ll pause, it’s a discretionary spend . . . you’ll see order books dry up immediately.”

Hawes said carmakers would try to get their existing inventory into the US as quickly as possible, but it would be “weeks rather than months” before they might have to make tough decisions even if lay-offs would be a “last resort”.

He told MPs it was vital for the UK to get a trade deal “very quickly” with the US that supported the automotive industry.

The alternative was for ministers to come up with a new “mechanism”, citing the kind of furlough scheme that was introduced during the coronavirus pandemic five years ago.

“There’s a number of things you could look at, any way of supporting employment,” he said.

Alternatives for ministers could be to introduce National Insurance or VAT holidays — or encourage more temporary flexibility from HM Revenue & Customs — for some carmakers, he said.

Liam Byrne, the Labour chair of the business committee, said after the meeting: “Ministers are right to throw everything at securing a US trade deal to hold off this real and present danger — but hope is not a plan.

“We must be ready with a big, bold lifeline for our world-class carmakers: incentives to boost UK sales, a blitz to slash energy costs and targeted support to keep our exporters in the race.”

JLR has suspended shipments to the US while Aston Martin has said it hopes to pass on some of the tariff cost to consumers. People close to the company said Aston Martin expected as much as a £30mn hit to its gross profit as a result of the US tariffs, potentially wiping out all of the profits analysts had been expecting for the year.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, more than 25,000 direct jobs in UK carmaking could be at risk if exports to the US fall.

Even before the US tariffs, carmakers had been struggling with the heavy investments they had made in electric vehicles and sluggish car sales in Europe. Ford last year said it would cut 800 jobs in the UK, while Vauxhall owner Stellantis announced plans to shut its van factory in Luton, putting about 1,100 jobs at risk.

Meanwhile Stephen Phipson, head of the manufacturing trade group Make UK, told the committee that companies were putting in place contingency plans to deal with the potential drop in trade caused by the Trump tariffs.

Phipson said the sectors facing the toughest challenges as a result of US tariffs were steel and cars.

“We don’t know from one day to the next . . . whether he’s going to suspend, whether he’s going to change [the tariffs], it makes planning your investments extremely challenging,” he said.

He said he supported ministers’ efforts to strike a trade deal.

“Many manufacturers are putting in temporary contingency plans hoping that in the next month or two we can get some sense and they don’t have to do the next level.”

When Byrne said that sounded “like people being laid off”, Phipson said: “That would be the end result of a dramatic reduction in volume, absolutely right, yes.”