Apple paid $851 million in privacy and antitrust fines in 2025

Apple was fined a total of $851 million in 2025 for privacy and antitrust violations across multiple jurisdictions, according to publicly available data compiled by privacy-focused company Proton.

9to5Mac reports.

Apple's 2025 fines

Proton's updated annual Tech Fines Tracker shows that Apple was penalized four times last year:

• $3.2 million in South Korea for using illegally obtained data without user consent;
• $162 million in France for privacy law violations;
• $571 million by the European Union for breaching Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules governing app stores; and
• $115 million in Italy for abusing its dominant position in the App Store.

Two of the cases involved antitrust violations, while the other two centered on privacy breaches.

Despite the headline figures, Proton argues the fines are negligible relative to Apple's financial power. Based on the company's free cash flow, it would take Apple just three days, three hours, and 28 minutes to pay off all four penalties.

By comparison, Google was fined $4.2 billion in 2025, Amazon $2.5 billion, and Meta $228 million, bringing total fines against major tech firms to $7.8 billion—an amount equivalent to less than a month of combined revenue for the companies involved.

"Clearly, fines are not working. Big Tech is simply treating them as a cost of doing business, something expected and baked into company budgets," said Romain Digneaux, Proton's public policy manager.

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