EU Fines Meta €797.72M Over Facebook Marketplace Antitrust Infringement

The EU Commission has just fined Meta €797.72 million for breaking EU antitrust laws with the way the company operates its Facebook Marketplace platform. Three years ago, the Commission started investigating whether Meta was abusing its dominant position in the market for online classified ads services, and the antitrust regulator came to the conclusion that the company engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

“Today we fine Meta €797.72 million for abusing its dominant positions in the markets for personal social network services and for online display advertising on social media platforms,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy. “Meta tied its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers. It did so to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that other online classified ads service providers could not match.”

Facebook is the largest social media platform with over 3 billion monthly active users as of last year. Integrating Facebook Marketplace into the leading social network makes it effectively hard for any competitor in that space to stand out. However, the EU Commission also found out that Meta imposed “unfair trading conditions” on Facebook Marketplace competitors purchasing ads on Meta’s apps like Facebook and Instagram. “This allows Meta to use ads-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace,” the EU Commission explained.

Meta quickly issued a press release to dismiss the EU Commission’s decision as being based on “hypothetical potential to harm competition.“ The company argued that it’s not using advertising data from rival marketplaces against them, and added that Facebook users are not forced to use Facebook Marketplace. The company also pointed out that the Commission’s decision ignores market realities.

“Platforms like eBay, Leboncoin in France, Marktplaats in the Netherlands, Subito in Italy, Blocket in Sweden and Finn.no in Norway are formidable competitors and the market leader in many member states,” Meta said today. “They have continued to report considerable commercial success, including strong financial results and growth, since Facebook Marketplace launched. Successful new entrants — such as Vinted — have also emerged and continue to grow and thrive in Europe.”

If Meta plans to appeal the European Commission’s Decision on Facebook Marketplace, the company said that will also “work quickly and constructively to launch a solution which addresses the points raised.”