The European Commission (EC) imposed this Thursday a fine of 797.72 million euros Goal for violating European Union antitrust rules.
The EC sanctions the company for linking its online classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace to its social network Facebook e impose unfair trading conditions on other suppliers of online advertising services.
Brussels has specified in a statement that on Facebook Marketplace users can sell and buy products and has added that its research has concluded that Meta is dominant in the personal social networking market, as well as in national online display advertising markets on social networks.
The Community Executive emphasizes that Meta abused its dominant position by linking Facebook Marketplace to Facebook, so that all users of the social network automatically have access and they are regularly exposed to your online classifieds service whether they like it or not.
The Commission has concluded that competitors of Facebook Marketplace may be excluded, since the link gives Facebook Marketplace “a substantial distribution advantage that competitors cannot match.
According to Brussels, Meta also abused its dominant position by unilaterally imposing unfair commercial conditions on other providers of online classified advertising services advertising on Meta’s platforms, in particular, on Facebook and Instagram.
“This pallows Meta to use related data with advertisements generated by other advertisers for the exclusive benefit of Facebook Marketplace,” details the EC.
Yet, The Commission states that it has ordered Meta to end its conduct and refrain from repeating the violation or adopting practices “with an equivalent objective or effect in the future.”
When imposing the economic amount of the fine, the Community Executive has taken into account “the duration and severity of the violation“, as well as the Facebook Marketplace business volume to which the violations relate and Meta’s total business.