The European Union is set to slap Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta with a fine that could stretch to $1 billion or more for allegedly violating its strict antitrust rules, The Post has learned – setting up a possible showdown with President Trump, who has compared the EU’s penalties to “overseas extortion.”
The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust watchdog, is expected to conclude that Meta is not in compliance with the Digital Markets Act, sources close to the situation told The Post on Monday.
The landmark law took effect in 2023 and applies tough competition rules on Meta and six other companies deemed internet gatekeepers.
The fine is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars and potentially more than $1 billion, the sources said.
The EU’s probe into the Facebook and Instagram parent company is expected to finish up as early as this week, with an announcement about the commission’s enforcement action to follow immediately after, the insiders added.
EU officials are also expected to hit Meta with a “cease-and-desist” notice, essentially informing the company of what it must change to get into compliance, according to the sources.
Representatives for Meta and the European Commission did not immediately return requests for comment.
Apple is also in the EU’s crosshairs and a fine against the iPhone maker could be announced this week or next week, the sources said.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Apple and Meta were likely to face “modest fines” for DMA breaches. EU antitrust chief Theresa Ribera previously said a decision on enforcement actions for both companies was coming in March.
Aside from Meta, companies deemed “gatekeepers” under the DMA include Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, TikTok parent ByteDance and Microsoft. EU regulators and other proponents say the law prevents tech giants from crushing smaller rivals through anticompetitive behavior.
Under the law, Big Tech companies can be fined up to 10% of their global revenue. The fines can rise to up to 20% of global revenue for repeat offenses.
Last July, the EU issued preliminary charges accusing Meta of violating the DMA by forcing customers into a restrictive “pay or consent” model for ads on Instagram and Facebook.
Officials focused on Meta’s rollout of a subscription service in 2023 in which users could pay the equivalent of $14 per month for an ad-free experience on the apps – or consent to Meta using their personal data for targeted ads.
“This binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalized but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks,” the European Commission said in a statement at the time.
In a public compliance report published earlier this month, Meta grumbled that it has “continued to receive additional demands that go beyond what is written in the law” despite efforts to adhere to the DMA’s rules.
In June 2024, Apple became the first company to be charged with DMA violations for allegedly preventing rival app developers from easily steering customers to services outside of its App Store. In November, reports surfaced that Apple was likely to be fined.
The EU took further actions last week – warning Apple that it must open up its iPhone operating system to app developers. It also told Google parent Alphabet that it could face fines for treating its own in-house services “more favorably” than rivals within its search results.
Aside from drawing sharp criticism from Big Tech, the law has increasingly drawn the ire of Trump, who has accused Europe of ripping off the US and vowed to impose retaliatory tariffs to level the playing field.
Trump issued a memo last month warning that his administration will “consider responsive actions like tariffs to combat the digital service taxes (DSTs), fines, practices, and policies that foreign governments levy on American companies.”
“President Trump will not allow foreign governments to appropriate America’s tax base for their own benefit,” the White House said at the time.
Separately, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan demanded a briefing from EU officials on how the bloc plans to enforce the Digital Markets Act. Jordan noted that six of the seven “gatekeepers” subject to the law are American-owned.
“These severe fines appear to have two goals: to compel businesses to follow European standards worldwide, and as a European tax on American companies,” Jordan said in a letter.
Zuckerberg, who has cozied up to Trump since his election win, has said the EU’s fines targeting Big Tech companies are “almost like a tariff” and have become “sort of like an EU-wide policy for how they want to deal with American tech.”
During an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in January, Zuckerberg argued that Trump should fight back against the fines.
“I think it’s a strategic advantage for the United States that we have a lot of the strongest companies in the world, and I think it should be part of the US strategy going forward to defend that,” Zuckerberg said.
The EU and Meta have engaged in a long-running beef over data privacy – including a record fine of $1.3 billion in 2023 for improperly transferring European users’ data to the US.
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