The European Commission continues its crusade against the intrusions of technological giants into the community area. This Thursday, it was the turn of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to which the European Commission imposed a fine of nearly 800 million euros for non-compliance with antitrust regulations European. Specifically, for linking its online advertising service, Facebook Marketplace, with its social network, Facebook, which creates unfair trading conditions for other online advertising platforms.
Community Vice President of Competition Margrethe Vestager clarified that “Meta linked its online advertising service, Facebook Marketplace, to its personal social network Facebook and imposed unfair commercial conditions on others online advertising providers. She did it for her own benefit. Facebook Marketplace service, which gives it an advantage that other providers cannot match. The Danish company stressed that such practices are illegal and that ““Meta must now stop this behavior.”
The European Commission detailed that the American multinational had abused its dominant position vis-à-vis its competitors and imposed unfair commercial conditions on competing suppliers. The amount of 797.72 million euros take into account duration and severity of the infringement and the turnover of Facebook Marketplace. Furthermore, Brussels took into account Meta’s total turnover to ensure it had a deterrent effect.
The case dates back to June 2021, when the Community Executive opened an investigation into Meta, suspecting that used advertisers’ data to compete with them in markets such as online classifieds, which constitutes a violation of competition rules.
Added to this is that the technology giant Meta owns the social network Facebook, which in turn has an online advertising platform, Facebook Marketplace, where users can buy and sell products. As part of its investigation, Brussels concluded that Facebook not only occupies a dominant position in the community space with its social network, but also with the advertising platform.
Thus, the Community Executive underlined that the technology giant engaged in practices of abuse of a dominant position. Concretely, the European Commission emphasizes that the company has linked its Marketplace to its social network, which implies that Facebook users have direct and regular access to their advertising platform, whether they like it or not.
Consequently, Brussels considered that an advantageous situation on Facebook Marketplace is created compared to other advertising platforms, which in turn constitutes an abuse of a dominant position.
Furthermore, the European Commission emphasizes that Meta imposes conditions unfair trade with other advertising platforms that advertise on the platforms of the company, particularly on Facebook and Instagram. The situation also allows the tech giant to use advertising data obtained from third-party advertisers for the benefit of Facebook’s own Marketplace.
