The sanction is imposed for violating European Union antitrust rules by linking its online advertising service Facebook Marketplace to its social network Facebook and imposing unfair commercial terms on other providers of online advertising services.
The European Commission on Thursday announced a fine of 798 million euros on the North American multinational Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for illegally linking the data of the social network’s customers to its classified advertising service Marketplace, in order to establish its own platform. advantage over other competitors. .
“Meta imposed unfair trading conditions on other online advertising providers and did so to favor its own Marketplace service with an advantage that other competitors could not achieve. This is illegal under European regulations and Meta must stop this behavior now,” he warned Vice President responsible for Competence in the Outgoing Community Executive, Margrethe Vestager.
The case dates back to the summer of 2022, when Brussels announced the opening of an antitrust investigation into this matter, which already became a formal accusation in December of the same year by sending the statement of objections to the company. Community services have filed a complaint against Meta for the way Facebook users automatically gain access to the classified advertising platform Marketplace, which puts other competitors at a disadvantage, as well as for the abuse of commercial terms for competing online advertising services that advertise on Facebook or Instagram.
Therefore, the Community Executive now orders Meta to effectively put an end to the illegal behavior and not repeat these practices in the future or implement other equivalent measures that would provide it with similar irregular benefits.
Source: EITB
I am Mary Fitzgerald, a professional journalist and author of the Today Times Live. My specialty is in writing and reporting on technology-related topics. I have spent the last seven years extensively researching and understanding the field of technology so I can properly inform my readers about developments in this ever-evolving world.
