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On 14 November, the European Commission imposed a fine of EUR 797.72 million on Meta Platforms for violating antitrust rules. The reason was the abuse of a dominant position in the market by linking the Facebook Marketplace online classifieds service to the Facebook social network, which, according to the EC, gave this service an unfair advantage over other online classifieds platforms.
The European Commission concluded that Meta had merged the two services, creating conditions under which Facebook users were effectively forced to interact with the Marketplace. Meta intends to appeal the decision.
The violation was discovered after two years of investigation. In 2021, the EU officially opened proceedings against Facebook over suspected anti-competitive behaviour, and in December 2022, it expressed concern about the so-called “tying” of Facebook to the Facebook Marketplace.
Facebook launched Marketplace in 2016 and expanded it to several European markets a year later. However, according to the European Commission, this integration may have hindered the development of other large online marketplaces in the EU.
At the same time, Meta argues that users can choose whether to use the Marketplace, and many of them do not. In addition, the company emphasises that the European Commission could not find concrete evidence that acting in the interests of the Marketplace caused harm to competitors.
The EU regularly imposes significant fines on companies for violating antitrust laws, with fines of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover.
