EU maxi fine of 797.7 million to Meta: violated competition rules

Brussels – Abuse of dominant position, distortion of competition, violation of EU rules. Meta is outside the law, and the European Commission imposes a maxi-money fine of €797.7 million on Mark Zuckerberg’s platform for all abusive practices in the single market. The web giant is being sanctioned for violating European competition rules by tying its Facebook Marketplace online ad service to its social network, Facebook, and imposing unfair business conditions on other online ad service providers. 

The investigation against Meta for its commercial policies within the well-known social media was triggered in June 2021, when the services of the EU Antitrust Authority opened the file and started the appropriate verifications. On December 19, 2022, Meta’s illicit policies were announced through the communication of the first findings. Today’s (Nov. 14) is nothing but the conclusion of this proceeding, which confirms the preliminary doubts.

Namely, the European Commission’s services point out that Meta allegedly abused its dominant position in violation of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Tying its Facebook Marketplace online ad service to its Facebook social network implies that all users automatically have access and are regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace, whether they want to or not. 

In addition to supply manipulation, there is market distortion, as “Facebook Marketplace competitors could be foreclosed because the tie-in gives Facebook Marketplace a substantial distribution advantage that competitors cannot match.” Not to mention the profiling of users and using their data for commercial purposes. Meta, given its dominant position, can use ad data generated by other advertisers to the exclusive benefit of Facebook Marketplace.

All this “is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” says Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of Competition.” Meta must now stop this behaviour” if it does not want the weight of the European Commission’s measures to become even greater. That is why Meta is also urged to refrain from repeating the violation found or adopting practices with an equivalent object or effect in the future.