On Thursday, Meta Platforms Incorporated faced a fine worth $840.00 million from the European Union (EU) over abusive practices.
Based on reports, regulators charged the company of harming other classified marketplace providers in Europe, leading to the imposed financial sanction.
More specifically, the European Commission (EC) stated that Meta violated EU antitrust regulations. It allegedly bundled Marketplace with Facebook itself, rendering anti-competitive terms on competing online classified ads providers.
As indicated by the enforcement arm, all users are said to be constantly exposed to the specified segment of the social media platform.
For this reason, the EU and the Commission assert that it gives a dominant distribution advantage that its competitors cannot match.
In addition, Meta also aids Facebook Marketplace in gaining benefits by utilizing ad-related data generated by other advertisers.
On top of the monetary penalty, the ruling of the EU orders the tech giant to terminate its actions and avoid repeating the violation.
Moreover, the Commission emphasized that market dominance alone is not prohibited under EU antitrust regulations. However, it stressed that companies with significant market power have a heightened responsibility to avoid using their position to stifle competition.
Meanwhile, this fine follows the earlier Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Meta regarding its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.
EC Decision to be Appealed by Meta
As revealed by reports, Meta announced that it will appeal the antitrust case decision of the EC.
For now, the multinational conglomerate agreed to comply with the ruling and address key points. At the same time, it expressed that there is no present proof of harm to competition in the decision.
More concretely, Meta argued that the EC order overlooks the existence of multiple strong competitors in the EU. The California-based company underscored that the online marketplace sector is filled with prospects that continue to achieve commercial success.
Furthermore, it claimed that the antitrust case misses the fact that Facebook users hold the choice to engage or not with Marketplace.
