Meta has been fined nearly 800 million euros by the European Commission for abusing of its social media dominance, allegedly by leveraging Facebook's reach to boost its classified ads section.
The Brussels-based body has accused Facebook's parent company of stifling competition by "tying" its free Marketplace services with the social network.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU's outgoing competition chief, said on Thursday that Meta "imposed unfair trading conditions" on other providers.
"It did so to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that [others] could not match. This is illegal," she added.
Meta said it would appeal against the 797.72 million euro fine.
"We built the Marketplace in response to consumer demand—this decision ignores the market realities, and will only serve to protect incumbent marketplaces from competition," it said in a post.
It added, "The European Commission’s decision provides no evidence of competitive harm to rivals or any harm to consumers."
The Commission said tying the classified ads section with Facebook gave "Meta to use ads-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace."
The EU first began its antitrust probe into Meta in 2019 after rivals accused the tech giant of abusing its dominant position to leverage users' data.
In June 2021, the Commission opened formal proceedings into "possible" anticompetitive conduct of Facebook and in December 2022, it issued initial charges against it.
The fine could possibly be the last blow to a major tech firm by Vestager, who is set to demit office in the next few weeks – a decade of antitrust enforcement against Big Tech.
"... the Commission took into account the duration and gravity of the infringement, as well as the turnover of Facebook Marketplace to which the infringements relate and which therefore defines the basic amount of the fine," the Commission said on the quantum of the fine.
Launched in 2016, Facebook Marketplace is a popular platform to buy and sell second-hand goods.
In its post, Meta said marketplaces in Europe continue to grow and dominate in the EU, and pointed to platforms such as eBay, Leboncoin in France, and Marktplaats in the Netherlands, as "formidable competitors."
Image Source: Unsplash
Comments