Islamabad, Nov 15: EU Fines Meta with €798 Million Fine over Facebook Marketplace’s Alleged ‘Abusive Practices’. Meta has been fined €797.72 million ($846 million) by the European Union for allegedly abusing its dominant position by unjustly favoring its own classified advertisements service by connecting Facebook Marketplace to its social network.
The European Commission claims that Meta has a significant distribution advantage over rivals thanks to its integration strategy, which successfully pushes Facebook users into Marketplace. Meta’s implementation of onerous criteria on third-party classified ad platforms that advertise on Facebook and Instagram was also mentioned by the commission. According to reports, these circumstances allowed Meta to use information from competing advertisers only for Facebook Marketplace’s advantage.
While vowing compliance and announcing preparations to appeal, Meta expressed sadness over the EU’s ruling and denied utilizing competitors’ ad data for its own benefit. The commission stated that the sum, which is one of the biggest EU antitrust sanctions against digital titans, reflects the “duration and severity” of Meta’s actions.
Recent increases in European regulators’ monitoring of Big Tech have strengthened the EU’s position that market leaders have an additional duty to stop anti-competitive behavior.
