Meta Compares European Commission’s Multi-Million Dollar Fine to a Levy

Meta, the tech company behind Facebook and Instagram, among others, has compared the European Commission’s fine of 200 million euros to levies.

The American company was fined on Wednesday for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Meta was given the fine because, according to the Commission, the company did not offer consumers sufficient opportunities to share less personal data via Facebook and Instagram. “By forcing us to change our business model, the Commission is effectively imposing a multi-billion dollar levy on Meta and forcing us to offer an inferior service,” claims Joel Kaplan, Meta’s director of international affairs, in a statement.

With the word levy, he seems to refer to the import duties imposed by US President Donald Trump against the EU, among other things. Kaplan further states that the European Commission is trying to disadvantage “successful American companies” with the fine, “while Chinese and European companies are allowed to operate under different standards.”

Fine
Apple was also fined by the Commission on Wednesday. The American tech group must pay 500 million euros because the company is pushing to offer apps only in its own app store.

The measure increases tensions between the EU and the US. The European Commission had previously planned to impose counter-levies on American products in response to the US levy. The EU has paused the plans because Brussels and Washington are trying to reach an agreement on this. An EU source said earlier on Wednesday that the fines are separate from the levies.