“We accept the European Commission’s statement,” Meta said. “Personalized ads are vital for Europe’s economy.”
The investigation came under the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act, which is designed to tackle the power of Big Tech giants and is one of the bloc’s tech rules that have drawn a strong response from the Trump administration.
The announcement comes just days after Brussels launched an antitrust investigation into Meta over its new policy on artificial intelligence providers’ access to WhatsApp – a case that underlines the Commission’s readiness to use its powers to challenge Big Tech.
This upcoming European investigation follows the launch of a recent DMA investigation into Google’s parent company Alphabet’s influence on the ranking of news outlets in search results and Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud computing services.
Last week, the Commission also fined Elon Musk 120 million euros for breaking the bloc’s digital transparency rules. The X ban led to heavy criticism from a wide range of US government officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the fines are “an attack by foreign governments on all US technology platforms and the American people.”
US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said the fine “is the result of EU regulatory over-reach” and said the Trump administration “opposes censorship and will challenge burdensome rules targeting US companies abroad.”
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