Apple was fined a global total of more than $2.1B last year for antitrust violations, but the sum was only the equivalent of just over a week’s worth of free cash flow.
Encrypted email company Proton put together its latest Tech Fines Tracker, in which Google was the most heavily-fined company, with Apple in second place …
The tracker covers fines levied for any breaches of the law. For most companies, this includes both antitrust and privacy violations, though in Apple’s case this is likely just the former.
Apple’s total does not include the $14B the company was ordered to pay in back-taxes to the Irish government, as there is no penalty within this sum. The legal wrongdoing here was on the part of the Ireland in offering a sweetheart tax deal; all Apple did was to accept it, and the company simply had to pay the standard amount of tax that would have been due had it paid the same rate as other businesses in the country.
Proton says that the total fines levied on tech giants was over $8.2B. While the sum is a large one by most people’s standards, Proton notes that each of the companies would be able to cover the sum from their free cash flow (revenue minus certain expenses) in anywhere from a day to just over a fortnight.
| Company | Total fines 2024 | Time to pay off its fines(using free cash flow) |
| Amazon | $57,478,000 | 1 day, 0 hours 51 minutes |
| Apple | $2,117,203,000 | 7 days, 2 hours, 28 minutes |
| $2,974,752,000 | 16 days, 21 hours, 25 minutes | |
| Meta | $1,462,850,000 | 9 days, 19 hours, 15 minutes |
| Microsoft | $1,605,000,000 | 7 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes |
| TOTAL | $8,216,283,000 |
The $8.2bn in fines issued to big tech over the course of 2024 – a seemingly huge sum – represents under three weeks’ revenue for these companies. When compared to the free cash flow (which takes revenue and subtracts some unavoidable expenses) of the tech giants , it would take just 16 days, 21 hours to pay off the fines if they were all paid off concurrently.
Google received the most fines this year, just short of $3 billion. Yet even using its free cash flow, it can pay off all its penalties in less than three weeks of business. Meta can cover its $1.4 billion in fines in under two weeks. Amazon’s $57m in fines is barely a rounding error – just a single day’s earnings would pay off this penalty […]
Apple’s largest fine this year was $2 billion issued by the EU for breaking competition laws over music streaming […]
Jurgita Miseviciute, Head of Public Policy at Proton, said: “Why would they care about a fine for wrongdoings that are the equivalent to a parking fine for you or I? It’s time regulators started speaking big tech’s language. You don’t prevent a bank robbery by arming guards with a feather. We need to create an environment where tech companies, no matter where they are founded, can thrive and not be hindered by the biggest players in the market, and strong competition legislation – enforcement – is vital for this. Fines may not be enough, big tech needs to end their anticompetitive practices.”
Proton bases its numbers on news reports from reputable sources, and says that it’s possible that some fines have been missed. Lawsuit payouts are not included unless a government was the plaintiff.
You can check out the full details here.
Photo by Dmytro Glazunov on Unsplash
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