Publicly available information reveals that Apple received fines totaling $851 millionlast year for privacy and antitrust. It’s worth noting that there was a decrease from 2024, when fines reached $2.1 billion. The data was compiled by Proton, which says that it would take the company just three days, three hours and 28 minutes to pay off the total amount.
Proton has updated its annual Tech Fines Tracker , revealing that Apple has been fined twice for abusing its dominant position at the expense of competitors and twice for violating privacy laws . However, the company argues that the amounts are completely inadequate given the size of these businesses.
See also: Apple: Fined $150,000 for breach of agreement
On the other hand, Google received fines of $4.2 billion, Amazon $2.5 billion, and Meta $228 million.
The $7.8 billion that Big Tech over the course of 2025 represents just under a month of revenue for these companies. This raises questions about whether this method is actually an effective “punishment.” Compared to the tech giants, it would take just 28 days and 48 minutes to pay off the fines if they were all paid at once.
Romain Digneaux, Proton’s director of public policy, said: “Clearly, fines don’t work. If they did, we would see some change in all the years that Big Tech has been getting fines. But instead, companies simply treat as a cost of doing business, something expected and built into their budgets. Regulators need to have teeth big enough to make Big Tech feel real pain for breaking the rules. We need real change, not just press releases.”
See also: India resists Apple's efforts to reduce potential $38 billion fine
Apple: Despite fines, it is not fully compliant
Many examples of non-compliant behavior continued into 2025, with Apple still refusing to comply with its obligations under the DMA, despite being fined €500 million in April. It should be noted that EU regulators already have the power to impose much higher penalties than they have done to date.
See also: Italy: Apple fined for App Store policies
For privacy violations, for example, the EU can fine a company up to 6% of its total annual global revenue. The amounts of money imposed for violating competition and privacy laws are relatively low, and there is little incentive for companies of this size to change their behaviors.
