After Trump warned of retaliation against the EU, the EU imposed 500 million euros and 200 million euros fines on Apple and Meta, totaling 700 million euros (approximately US$798 million) on the grounds of violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

On April 23, according to media reports, the European Commission said that EU regulators fined Apple 500 million euros under the Digital Markets Act, accusing it of failing to allow developers to link to external platforms for sale from its App Store, violating relevant regulations. Meta was fined 200 million euros for its Instagram and Facebook's advertising-free business model.

"Apple and Meta failed to comply with the regulations. All companies operating in the EU must abide by our laws and respect European values," said Teresa Ribera, head of antitrust at the EU.

This is the first time that the Digital Market Law has issued a fine. If the two companies fail to comply within 60 days, they may face greater penalties. In addition, regulators have warned Apple that its new charging structure for application developers has been designed to comply with EU regulations and does not comply with EU large tech companies rules.

It is worth noting that on April 2, according to CCTV News, the White House issued a statement saying that Trump will impose a 10% "benchmark tariff" on all countries and add reciprocal tariffs. At the same time, Trump has clearly regarded EU technology regulation as a non-tariff trade barrier, and said that his so-called "reciprocal tariffs" are targeted at such situations.

In this case, although the EU's penalties are still hundreds of millions of euros, they are relatively restrained because the Digital Markets Act gives regulators the right to impose up to 10% of the company's global annual revenue. Media noted that this is likely the EU's attempt to avoid further angering Trump.