The European Commission has imposed a €797.72 million fine on Meta for breaching European Union (EU) antitrust rules by linking its classified ads platform, Facebook Marketplace, directly to its core social network, Facebook, and imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ad providers.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was found to hold a dominant position in the personal social networking space across the European Economic Area (EEA) and national markets for social media display advertising.
The hefty fine comes two years after it accused the U.S. tech giant of giving its classified ads service Facebook Marketplace an unfair advantage by bundling the two services together.
This followed a 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) fine against the company barely a week ago by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission.
In the previous case, the South Korean authority accused Meta of collecting sensitive user data without legal authorization and sharing it with advertisers.
Meta’s infringements in Europe
The European Commission in a statement released on Thursday said its investigation revealed that Meta abused this market dominance by:
- Integrating Facebook Marketplace with Facebook: All Facebook users are automatically given access to Marketplace, which frequently appears on users’ feeds. The Commission argues this practice provides Marketplace an advantage in distribution that its competitors cannot replicate, effectively sidelining them.
- Unfair Trading Conditions for Advertisers: Meta allegedly used advertising data from other classified ad service providers who advertise on Facebook and Instagram to benefit only Facebook Marketplace. This practice reportedly allowed Meta to leverage other advertisers’ data to gain an edge for its platform.
Implications of the fine
The fine, based on the Commission’s 2006 guidelines, reflects the length and severity of the infringement.
- The Commission also considered Facebook Marketplace’s revenue as well as Meta’s overall financial scale to ensure that the penalty would deter future antitrust violations.
- The ruling requires Meta to end the infringements immediately and refrain from similar practices in the future.
Speaking on the Commission’s action, the Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said:
“Today we fined Meta €797.72 million for abusing its dominant positions in the markets for personal social network services and for online display advertising on social media platforms.
“Meta tied its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers.
“ It did so to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that other online classified ads service providers could not match. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour.”
The EU has ramped up its scrutiny of large tech companies’ business practices, enforcing measures that prevent market monopolization and ensure fair competition.
What you should know
In July, Nigeria’s Federal Competiton and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) also imposed a $220 million fine against Meta Platforms Incorporated following a joint investigation into the company’s conduct, privacy policies, the operation thereof, and practices between May 2021 and December 2023.
The final order highlighted Meta’s alleged infringements to include, denying Nigerian data subjects the right to self-determine; unauthorized transfer and sharing of Nigerian data-subjects personal data, including cross-border storage in violation of then, and now prevailing law; discrimination and disparate treatment and abuse of Dominance.
These high-profile cases underline the growing global emphasis on protecting user data and ensuring that companies adhere to strict privacy regulations.
