All the impending EU fines and rulings against Apple, Google, and Meta, are reportedly off the table as Europe awaits Trump — and reveals just how political its regulations are.
For ten years, the European Union and especially competition chief Margrethe Vestager, has been working to control Big Tech. It’s done so mostly very successfully, with the region being the first to implement a Digital Markets Act (DMA) that laid out conditions — and especially potential fines for transgressions.
Now according to the Financial Times, however, all of the regulator’s plans for fines are on hold. Only what is described as technical work will continue on any of the Big Tech investigations, and for the moment there will be no fines.
It’s because the main EU chiefs responsible have reached their term limits and are leaving. And it’s surely because the incoming Trump Administration in the US is expected to listen to Big Tech lobbyists and push back against regulation.
“It’s going to be a whole new ballgame with these tech oligarchs so close to Trump and using that to pressurise us,” an unnamed senior EU diplomat said. “So much is up in the air right now.”
Reportedly, two further EU officials said that regulators in Brussels were now waiting for political direction. Until they get that guidance, they will not be making their final decisions on cases such as those against Apple, Google, and Meta.
However, these comments have been denied by the European Union. “There is no delay in finalising the opened non-compliance cases, and especially not due to any political considerations,” said an EU spokesperson.
Yet EU lawmakers such as MEP Stephanie Yon-Courtin have been pressing the regulators to continue, because the DMA “cannot be taken hostage” because of political or diplomatic reasons.
Yon-Courtin was among those involved in the original drafting of the EU regulations. She has asked the European Commission’s president to “reassure me that your cabinet and yourself are fully supporting the effective implementation of the DMA, without further delay.”
The EU and Apple
The EU was not shy about enforcing the DMA during Vestager’s tenure, nor of imposing fines. In March 2024, it fined Apple $2 billion for anticompetitive practice with Apple Music — despite Apple’s streaming service being far from dominant.
It’s decisions were controversial, then, and sometimes nonsensical. Plus Vestager has been swift to lambast Apple over any perceived slight against the EU.
Vestager has been successful, at least in the eyes of the EU. As well as getting is 27 member states to pass the DMA into law, it’s because of the EU that Apple’s iPhone switched to using USB-C for charging.
Plus it is because of the EU that Apple was forced to pay Ireland $14 billion in back taxes — despite even Ireland saying it was wrong.
Apple may well have made that USB-C switch anyway, but it wouldn’t have been with the iPhone 15 range in 2023. And Apple would never have even considered allowing third-party app stores — and has unsuccessfully fought against them.
While Apple appears to have followed EU regulations with practically surgical precision, its rivals have described it as doing so with malicious compliance. Epic Games said Apple’s EU concessions were “hot garbage.”
Consequently, by June 2024, it was expected that the EU would fine Apple over its alleged failure to comply with the DMA. That appears to be one of the decisions that has been put on hold, and perhaps more because of EU administration changes than America’s.
Margrethe Vestager is being replaced as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission
For in August 2024, it was announced that Margrethe Vestager would not be getting a third term as European Commissioner for Competition. She’d already publicly predicted she would be out of the role, though, so possibly decisions were already being delayed pending the changes.
What happens next
The European Union has easily been the most successful territory in imposing regulations over Big Tech, but everywhere from India to the US is working to do the same. The pressure on Apple to open up its systems is ultimately going to continue, then.
But the fact that fines, investigations, and decisions, are all being paused points to just how much regulations are really political decisions. Tim Cook has already described some of the EU’s decisions as “total political crap,” and it looks like he’s right.
The politics will not end, however, even as the EU is said to be reviewing its processes. For as the EU pauses, Big Tech is cozying up to incoming President Trump in order to get political might on its side.
It’s likely, then, that Big Tech firms will see less impact from regulation for the period of the next administration.
Whether or not that’s good for consumers, though, will be irrelevant. While all sides, doubtlessly including Apple, will proclaim that they only want to protect users, this is going to be a fight between governments and Big Tech.
Or rather, it’s going to continue to be. For all that it should be applauded for being the first territory to successfully implement a Digital Markets Act, the EU’s decisions have favored companies over consumers.
The EU would deny that, and it has repeatedly insisted that it is working to protect users. But as its fine against Apple Music showed, the EU has continually and even unreasonably favored Spotify, a firm based in its territory.
