The chief of the European Commission’s competition directorate downplayed expectations over the size of the fines that the EU executive is set to hand down to Apple and Meta for infringing the bloc’s digital antitrust rules.
Enforcing the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which lays out rules for how tech companies should operate on the European market, is not about fines but about compliance, DG COMP’s Director General Olivier Guersent told an evening event hosted by the Global Competition Law Centre in Brussels on Monday.
The Commission is expected to fine U.S. companies Apple and Meta, which owns Facebook, in the coming days for allegedly violating the DMA, which fully took effect in 2024.
But Guersent downplayed speculation over the size of these fines, saying that it does not make sense to compare these with fines handed out in the past for antitrust infringements, such as the €1.8 billion the Commission fined Apple in March last year for abusive app store rules.
That’s because antitrust penalties reflect repeat offenses, according to Guersent. “Fines in antitrust are the result of reiterative infringements of a very long duration,” he said. As the DMA is only one year old, “by definition, DMA infringements cannot be reiterated,” and the duration of noncompliance will be “short,” he added.
Appearing at the European Parliament Tuesday morning, Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said the Commission remained committed to enforcing the DMA and would impose fines on Big Tech players found to be in breach of the law.
“If we do not see willingness to cooperate we will not shy away from imposing the fines identified by the law,” said Ribera. The commissioner noted that the EU executive was preparing to issue infringement decisions in the near future.
Companies found to be in breach of the DMA can be fined up to 10% of their total worldwide turnover. This can go up to 20% in case of repeated infringements.
The rationale for the DMA is compliance, not punishment, Guersent said, adding that “in a normal world,” when the DMA is up and running, companies should not get sanctioned under it.
When asked whether DMA enforcement would be stopped or watered down in the context of broader Commission priorities in a tense geopolitical environment, he said “I have no indication that this will happen.”
The post Top EU official downplays expectations over Apple, Meta digital fines appeared first on Politico.
