According to a new report today, Apple and Meta’s regulatory woes in the EU are almost over. Both companies are allegedly close to settling their antitrust cases with the European Commission (EC), which will definitely be good for them as they’d avoid some additional hefty fines that the EC might impose otherwise.
This information isn’t official yet, the report says it comes from “officials briefed on the discussions” between the EC on one side, and Apple and Meta respectively on the other.
These unnamed European officials have told the Financial Times that there is now “growing optimism” for finding “a workable solution” when it comes to Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model, where the Facebook and Instagram owner forces users to either consent to its very extensive data tracking or pay a monthly subscription to get rid of it. Meta has already been fined €200 million for this.
The most sensitive remaining issue when it comes to Meta is ensuring that consumers can easily find and navigate all the different options it offers in the EU.
Apple, on the other hand, already announced changes to its infringing App Store policies in June. The EC is now discussing other potential changes with Apple regarding its newer investigation into Apple’s contractual terms with developers.
At the moment, the EC hasn’t made any final decisions on either company’s woes, but “people briefed on the talks” are apparently “hopeful the cases would be settled soon”. If this pans out, both Apple and Meta would avoid daily penalties which can escalate all the way up to 5% of their average daily worldwide revenue.
