EU imposes €800 million fine on Meta for Marketplace law violation
Brief:
Meta has been slapped with a large €800 million fine by the European Union for unfair actions including its Facebook Marketplace. The EU claims that Meta used unfair plan by limit the free service to its social network, in that way hold back competition.
Meta's Unfair Practices and the €800 Million Fine
Meta's Response and Future Appeal
Broader Antitrust Efforts and Global Impact
Meta's Unfair Practices and the €800 Million Fine
EU Fines Meta €800 Million for Breaking Law with Marketplace
EU: Tying the free Facebook Marketplace to the social network undermines rivals.
Meta has been fined nearly 800 million euros ($844.6 million) by Brussels after regulators accused Facebook’s parent company of stifling competition by “tying” its free Marketplace services with the social network.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s outgoing competition chief, said on Thursday that by linking Facebook with its classified ads service, Meta had “imposed unfair trading conditions” on other providers.
She added: “It did so to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that [others] could not match. This is illegal.”
Meta said it would appeal against the 797.72 million euro fine levied by regulators. “We built Marketplace in response to consumer demand—this decision ignores the market realities, and will only serve to protect incumbent marketplaces from competition.”
It added: “The European Commission’s decision provides no evidence of competitive harm to rivals or any harm to consumers.”
Meta's Response and Future Appeal
The EU’s long-running antitrust probe into Meta was launched in 2019 following accusations from rivals that the tech giant was abusing its dominant position by offering free services while profiting from data it collects on the platform.
In December 2022, the European Commission issued initial charges against Facebook for allegedly using the data it gathered for free—mostly from businesses—to then sell ads to users.
It also marks one of the final investigations overseen by Vestager, who is set to leave the commission in the next few weeks after a decade of antitrust enforcement against Big Tech.
During her tenure, Vestager has repeatedly targeted the world’s biggest tech companies, with some of the toughest actions against tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
The EU Commission on Thursday said Meta is “dominant in the market for personal social networks (...) as well as in the national markets for online display advertising on social media.”
Broader Antitrust Efforts and Global Impact
Facebook Marketplace, launched in 2016, is a popular platform to buy and sell second-hand goods, especially household items such as furniture.
Meta has argued that it operates in a highly competitive environment. In a post published on Thursday, the tech giant said marketplaces in Europe continue “to grow and dominate in the EU,” pointing to platforms such as eBay, Leboncoin in France, and Marktplaats in the Netherlands, as “formidable competitors.”
Meta’s fine comes at a period of political transition both in the EU and the US.
Brussels officials have been aggressive both in their rhetoric and their antitrust probes against Big Tech giants as they sought to open markets for local start-ups.
In the past five years, EU regulators have also passed a landmark piece of legislation—the Digital Markets Act—with the aim to slow down dominant tech players and boost the local tech industry.
However, some observers expect the new commission, which is set to start a new 5-year term in weeks, to strike a more conciliatory tone over fears of retaliation from the incoming Trump administration.
For the full report by Arstechnica, you can read the original article here: