The European Union has fined Meta Platforms €798 million ($840 million) over what it called “abusive practices” involving its Marketplace online classified ads business.
“The European Commission has fined Meta €797.72 million for breaching EU antitrust rules by tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers,” the EU’s executive arm said in a statement.
Meta has announced its intention to appeal the European Commission’s decision, but in the meantime, the company will comply with the ruling and work proactively to implement a solution that addresses the concerns raised by the Commission.
This latest development follows a two-year investigation, during which the EU accused the U.S. tech giant of granting an unfair competitive edge to its classified ads platform, Facebook Marketplace, by bundling it with its dominant social networking service.
This is the first time the EU has fined Meta for breaching its competition laws, though Big Tech rivals like Google and Apple have already faced billions in antitrust penalties from Brussels.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President responsible for competition policy, stated, “Today, we fine Meta €797.72 million for abusing its dominant positions in the markets for personal social network services and online display advertising on social media platforms.”
She explained that Meta had tied its classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace, to its personal social network, Facebook, and imposed unfair trading conditions on competing classified ads providers. This behavior, she said, was designed to unfairly benefit Facebook Marketplace by giving it advantages that competitors could not match. “This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour.”
