Brussels, November 14
The European Commission on Thursday slapped Meta with a hefty fine of approximately Euro 800 million for violating EU antitrust rules through its Facebook Marketplace platform.
In a statement, it said, "The European Commission has fined Meta Euro 797.72 million for breaching EU antitrust rules by tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers."
The European Commission said that Meta tied its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook.
"This means that all Facebook users automatically have access and get regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace whether they want it or not. The Commission found that competitors of Facebook Marketplace may be foreclosed as the tie gives Facebook Marketplace a substantial distribution advantage which competitors cannot match," the European Commission said.
In a statement, Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy in the European Commission said that the European Commission fined Meta Euro 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," Vestager said.
Following the European Commission's fine, Meta said that they have built a Marketplace in response to consumer demand. In a statement, Meta said, "This decision ignores the market realities, and will only serve to protect incumbent marketplaces from competition. The European Commission's decision provides no evidence of competitive harm to rivals or any harm to consumers."
The Meta further said that they will appeal this decision to promote better outcomes for the European consumers.