The EU’s Half-a-Trillion Dollar Apple Fine Harms American Competitiveness and Will Ultimately Expose the Privacy of European Consumers

April 24, 2025

On Wednesday, the European Union fined Apple more than half-a-trillion dollars ($570 million) for being Apple.

Many thought that after the meeting between Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and EU competition chief Teresa Ribera that the EU would come to reasonable terms in applying the Digital Markets Act in this Apple case. Nothing heard in Washington, D.C., deterred the EU from firing a torpedo below the waterline of America’s most innovative company, popular with consumers in Europe and around the world.

The EU is making two demands that would wreck Apple’s successful business model. It demands that Apple open its app store to competitors. And it wants Apple to share the guts of its operations with competitors. One reason why consumers value Apple is that it takes great care to protect their privacy and security. If the EU’s mandate is enforced, it is a certainty that this technology exposure and giveaway will get into the hands of bad actors, and especially into a number of cutout companies that will pass it on to China.

And here’s the topper: Europe wants Apple to give away its intellectual property for free.

In a statement, Apple said: “We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for.” Expect European consumers to scream when their personal information goes global. And expect the Trump Administration to act to defend American companies from predatory fines.