Monday, 17 August 2026Europe · Analysis
Independent · Brussels & Berlin
Person
Chief global affairs officer, Meta
Fines against Google, Apple and Meta since January 2024 have become the sharpest point of friction in US-EU economic relations, with Washington signalling retaliatory measures.
The European Commission is considering a one-year grace period for high-risk AI breaches and pushing transparency fines to 2027, after lobbying from the Trump administration and European industrial groups.
The European Commission's Code of Practice for general-purpose AI models takes effect this weekend, creating a voluntary compliance period before the full AI Act applies in 2026. Google, OpenAI and Mistral have signed; Meta says the code exceeds the legislation.
Google, Microsoft and OpenAI back the voluntary General-Purpose AI Code of Practice ahead of the August 2 deadline, while Meta refuses and xAI rejects the copyright chapter.
The company says the voluntary code creates legal uncertainties and exceeds the AI Act's scope, while the Commission warns non-signatories face tighter scrutiny.
The European Commission has issued its first fines under the Digital Markets Act, targeting Apple's App Store restrictions and Meta's consent-or-pay model, though the amounts fall well short of the maximum allowed.
Public policy chiefs from both companies told the Techarena conference that fragmented regulation and the AI Act are delaying product launches and disadvantaging European consumers.
Senior executives from both companies say the voluntary code of practice goes beyond the AI Act and threatens European competitiveness ahead of the Paris AI summit.
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