The European Commission imposes a hefty fine on Meta for linking Facebook and Marketplace

The European Commission (EC) is at it again and is once again handing out a hefty fine to an American technology giant. This time it’s Meta and the fine is €797.72 million (approximately $843.1 million).

The reason has to do with the fact that Meta Marketplace is essentially shoving it down the throats of every Facebook user, whether they want it or not. According to the EC, this amounts to imposing unfair trading conditions on other providers of online advertising services.

Basically, the only ads you’re likely to see on Facebook are from Meta through Marketplace, and that leaves out any potential competitors because of the way it’s tied to Facebook. But wait, there’s more. The EC also says Meta unilaterally imposes unfair trading conditions on other classified ad providers advertising on its platforms, allowing Meta to use ad-related data generated by other advertisers “for the benefit of Facebook Marketplace.”

The European Commission’s investigation found that Meta is “dominant” in the personal social networking market and national online social media display advertising markets. Therefore, her behavior was investigated.

The amount of the fine was determined based on “the duration and severity of the violation, as well as the turnover of Facebook Marketplace to which the violations relate.” In addition to the fine, Meta is now also obliged to “effectively terminate the conduct and refrain from repeating the violation or from adopting practices with an equivalent purpose or effect in the future.”

Unsurprisingly, Meta is not happy about this and has promised to appeal the decision to “promote better outcomes for European consumers” as it “built Marketplace in response to consumer demand”. The company says the European Commission’s decision “ignores the realities of the market” and “will only serve to protect established marketplaces from competition.”

Meta’s main and possibly most compelling argument seems to be that “Facebook users can choose whether or not to engage with Marketplace, and many don’t.” “The reality is,” Meta says, “people use Facebook Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to.”

Meta also says it doesn’t use rivals’ ad data to compete with Marketplace against them, because it has built systems and controls to ensure that.

Source 1 | Source 2