The Irish Times view on the fines on Apple and Meta: Big tech must play by the rules

International economics and business are framed in profound ways these days by Donald Trump's trade wars. And so when the EU announced on Wednesday that it had fined Apple and Meta a total of €700 million for breaching antitrust rules, the speculation was that it had avoided bigger penalties in a bid not to antagonise the White House further. The EU is, after all, currently trying to get the Trump administration to engage in talks on a new trade deal which would involve reducing, or eliminating, the recently imposed tariffs and avoiding the threat of increasing them further. Not surprisingly,…