EU is trying to ‘handicap successful American businesses’ with new fines

Meta (META) fired back at the European Union’s decision to levy a $228 million fine against the social media giant, calling it an inequitable application of the bloc’s new competition laws.

“The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, said in a statement to Yahoo Finance.

The EU’s antitrust watchdog, the European Commission, on Wednesday said Meta breached a requirement under the Digital Markets Act to offer consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data.

“This isn’t just about a fine,” Meta’s Kaplan added. “The Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service. And by unfairly restricting personalized advertising the European Commission is also hurting European businesses and economies.”

Meta said it plans to appeal the decision.

Separately, the EU fined Apple (AAPL) $571 million under a different provision of the same law, claiming the iPhone maker failed to allow app developers whose apps are offered through the App Store alternative ways to make purchases.

Apple also had some strong words for European regulators. A representative for the iPhone maker said “today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free.”

“We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for. Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way.”

Apple also confirmed it would appeal the decision and continue to seek a resolution with the EC.

US-based technology trade association Chamber of Progress, which advocates for major US technology companies, said the EU fines further strain US-EU ties.

“After companies have crossed every “T” and dotted every “I” in complying with the law, these fines prove that Europe’s aim all along was to single out American firms for punishment,” said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich.

“The Digital Markets Act has already created a digital curtain around Europe and turned Europeans into second-class digital citizens. It seems likely to further inflame a trade war.”