Job’s Mob, unsurprisingly, threw its toys out of the pram.

 “Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple... and forcing us to give away our technology for free,” the company moaned.

Meta, never one to be outdone in self-pity, grumbled the EU was “handicapping successful American businesses” and accused the bloc of imposing a “multi-billion-dollar tariff” on its business model.

The fines follow a lengthy probe by the European Commission into whether the big boys are toeing the DMA line. The line came into force in 2023 to stop Silicon Valley juggernauts from gatekeeping the digital economy.

Apple got smacked for blocking app developers from pointing users to cheaper deals outside the App Store, while Meta’s creepy pay-or-consent model didn’t pass muster either.

In classic form, President Donald Trump called the fines a “novel form of economic extortion” and promised retaliation, although he will probably change his mind by tomorrow. Brussels doesn’t seem fussed, though, especially after a recent US court ruling found Google’s adtech monopoly illegal too.

Meta’s trick of letting Facebook and Instagram users either pay for an ad-free version or get tracked for free ran afoul of the rules until November 2024, when it dialled back the snooping slightly. It’s now chin-wagging with regulators to see if the new model is kosher.

Meanwhile, Job’s Mob avoided a separate fine by reluctantly making iPhone browser-switching slightly less of a labyrinth. But it’s still being slapped for trying to discourage sideloading by slapping developers with its new “Core Technology Fee”—a cheeky way of pretending to open up while still holding the gate keys.

Meta’s Marketplace was let off the hook, as no one uses it anymore, and it is not even enough to qualify as a gatekeeper.

EU antitrust boss Teresa Ribera said: “We have taken firm but balanced enforcement action.”

EU lawmaker Andreas Schwab wasn’t having any backsliding either, warning that dragging feet on other investigations, like Chipzilla’s ad rival Google or Elon’s X, would be “dangerous for the whole European Union construction.”