So, like, the European Union watchdogs were all like, “Hey Apple, you gotta pay up 500 million euros, and Meta, you owe us 200 million euros.” And this all went down in London, where the European Commission was like, “Enough is enough, Big Tech!” They were super mad because Apple was stopping app makers from telling users about cheaper options outside the App Store. And then Meta was making Facebook and Instagram peeps choose between ads or paying to avoid them, which is not cool. The fines were not as huge as they’ve been in the past, but still, it’s a big deal. These decisions were supposed to come out in March, but they got delayed because the U.S. President was causing a ruckus. The EU’s Digital Markets Act is all about making sure people have choices online and that Big Tech can’t control everything. The commission is all about tech sovereignty, and they’re not playing around. Apple and Meta need to change their ways, according to the commission. Apple is all like, “This isn’t fair, we’ve been working our butts off to comply,” and Meta is saying, “Why are you picking on us when other companies get off easy?” So, yeah, it’s a whole big mess in the digital world right now.
