The European Commission announced this Thursday a fine of 798 million euros to the North American multinational Meta, Facebook’s parent company, for illegally linking the data of the social network’s clients with its classified advertising service, Marketplace, to favor its own platform over other competitors.
«Goal imposed unfair trading conditions to other online classifieds providers and did so to benefit its own Marketplace service with an advantage that other competitors could not achieve. This is illegal according to European regulations and Meta You must now stop this behavior», has warned the Vice President in charge of Competence in the outgoing Community Executive, Margrethe Vestager.
The case dates back to the summer of 2022, when Brussels announced the opening of an antitrust investigation for this case, which in December of that same year became a formal accusation by sending the statement of objections to the company.
Community services filed charges against Meta for the way Facebook users automatically access the classified ads platform Marketplace, which left other competitors at a disadvantage.
He also included in the accusation that the company unilaterally imposed abusive trading conditions to competing online classified ad services that advertise on Facebook or Instagram.
Brussels considers that the terms and conditions authorizing Meta to use data related to advertisements derived from competitors for the benefit of Facebook Marketplace are “unjustified, disproportionate and unnecessary” for the provision of graphic advertising services on Meta platforms.
The community Executive orders Meta put an end effectively to illegal conduct and not to repeat these practices in the future or to introduce other equivalent measures that would give similar irregular advantages.
When setting the amount of the fine, the Commission took into account the duration and severity of the violationas well as the turnover of Facebook Marketplace to which the infringements relate and which, therefore, defines the base amount of the fine. It also took into account Meta’s total business volume to guarantee the deterrent effect in a company with resources as important as the American one.
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