The European Commission imposed another large fine on the American company Meta, worth nearly 800 million euros.
More precisely, it is a matter of a fine of 797.72 million euros, which Meta has received because it has practically established a Marketplace for every user of the social network Facebook, whether he wants it or not.
According to the European Commission, this constitutes the imposition of unfair trading conditions on other classified service providers.
Essentially, the ads users see on Facebook are Meta's and come through the Marketplace, which shuts out all potential competitors because of the way Facebook is connected.
But that's not all. The European Commission alleges that Meta unilaterally imposes unfair commercial terms on other ad providers who advertise on its platforms, which allows Meta to use ad-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace.
The investigation of the European Commission showed that Meta is dominant in the market of personal social networks, as well as in the national markets of the online display of advertisements in social networks, so its behavior was investigated.
The amount of the fine is determined by taking into account “the duration and severity of the violation, as well as the Facebook Marketplace traffic to which the violation is related. In addition to punishment, Meta must "effectively end the offending behavior and refrain from repeating the violation of the rule, as well as from adopting practices with a similar purpose or effect in the future."
It is no wonder that Meta is not satisfied with the decision and has already announced an appeal against the decision in order to "promote better results for European consumers", because "Marketplace was created in response to consumer requests". The company says that the European Commission "ignores the reality of the market" and that "it will only serve to protect existing markets from competition".
Matt's main and perhaps most convincing argument seems to be that "Facebook users can choose whether or not to engage with Marketplace." The company says that "the reality is that people use Facebook Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to."
Meta claims it does not use rivals' advertising data to compete against them, as it has systems and controls in place to prevent this.
edition
t7 live
