EU imposes a fine of 797 million euros on Meta for abuse in favor of Facebook Marketplace

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission on Thursday fined Meta Platforms €797.72 million ($840.24 million) for abusive practices in favor of Facebook Marketplace, it said in a statement, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

“The European Commission has fined Meta for violating EU antitrust rules by linking its online advertising site Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online advertising providers,” the European Commission said .

Meta said it will appeal the decision, but in the meantime it will adhere to it and work quickly and constructively to launch a solution that addresses the points raised.

The European Commission’s move comes two years after it accused the US tech giant of giving its advertising service Facebook Marketplace an unfair advantage by bundling the two services together.

The European Union initiated formal proceedings against possible anti-competitive behavior by Facebook in June 2021 and raised concerns in December 2022 that Meta is linking its dominant social network Facebook to its online classified advertising services.

Facebook launched Marketplace in 2016 and expanded to several European countries a year later.

The EU decision states that Meta imposes Facebook Marketplace on people who use Facebook in an illegal way, but Meta said this argument ignores the fact that Facebook users can choose whether or not to engage with Marketplace, and many not.

Meta said the Commission alleged that Marketplace had the potential to hinder the growth of large established online marketplaces in the EU, but could not find any evidence of harm to competitors.

Companies face fines of as much as 10% of their global turnover for violations of EU antitrust laws.

($1 = 0.9494 euros)

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Supantha Mukherjee, editing by Tomasz Janowski)