The European Union fined Meta 797.72 million EUR (approximately 840 million USD) for tying Marketplace to Facebook, imposing unfair trading conditions on competitors.
On November 14, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager stated that by linking Facebook to Marketplace, Meta “imposed unfair trading conditions” on other providers.
She added that Facebook’s parent company did this to profit from the Marketplace service, providing advantages that others could not match. “This is illegal,” she asserted.
Meta announced that it would appeal the decision, arguing that “the European Commission’s decision does not provide evidence of competitive harm to rivals or any harm to consumers.”
The EU’s prolonged antitrust investigation into Meta was launched in 2019 following allegations from competitors that the American tech giant was abusing its dominance by offering free services while profiting from the data collected on the platform.
In December 2022, the European Commission issued initial charges against Facebook for using data collected for free—mainly from businesses—and then selling advertisements to users, violating antitrust laws.
This is one of the final investigations overseen by Ms. Vestager, who will leave the commission in a few weeks after a decade in office.
During her tenure, Ms. Vestager has repeatedly targeted some of the world’s largest tech companies, such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
The European Commission determined that Meta “dominates the personal social networking market (…) as well as the national market for online social media display advertising.”
Facebook Marketplace, launched in 2016, is a popular platform for buying and selling secondhand goods, especially household items like furniture. Meta argues that their operating environment is highly competitive.
The company lists platforms like eBay, Leboncoin in France, and Marktplaats in the Netherlands as “formidable competitors.”
Meta has faced billions of dollars in fines in Europe for various violations in recent years. In September, the company was fined over $100 million for a security breach that exposed user passwords.
In January 2023, the company was fined over $400 million for several violations. In May 2023, Facebook’s owner was fined over $1 billion for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
However, these cases often take years to conclude, and Meta is in the process of appealing these fines.
Yet, there have been times when Meta had to concede. In the U.S., the company reached a settlement with the FTC in 2019, paying a $5 billion fine and implementing new privacy regulations.
The EU announced the fine against Meta amid a power transition in both the U.S. and Europe.
Over the past five years, EU regulators have passed a landmark law—the Digital Markets Act—aimed at curbing Big Tech and boosting the local tech industry.
However, some observers expect the new commission, set to begin its five-year term in a few weeks, to adopt a more conciliatory tone amid concerns of retaliation from the Donald Trump administration.
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Source: Vietnam Insider