Thursday 14/November/2024 – 09:51 PM
The European Union regulatory authorities imposed a fine of 798 million euros, equivalent to 841 million dollars, on the company. MetaPlatforms Because it linked the Facebook Marketplace service to the Facebook platform, in a precedent that is the first of its kind against the American technology giant for violating antitrust laws in the region.
The European Union fines Meta 798 million euros for abuse of dominance in classified ads
According to Bloomberg, the European Commission ordered Meta to stop linking the classified advertising service, Facebook Market Place, to the Facebook network, and obligated it not to impose unfair trade terms on its competitors in the classified advertising market for used goods.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner responsible for antitrust issues, said: Meta linked the Facebook Marketplace classifieds service to the Facebook network, which harmed other classifieds service providers and imposed unfair terms on them in favor of its own service.
This fine is one of the last decisions that Vestager takes before leaving office at the end of the year. Over the past years, Vestager has been known for her toughness towards Silicon Valley companies, as she imposed huge fines exceeding 8 billion euros against Google in similar cases.
The latest decision comes after an investigation conducted by European regulatory bodies into the use of meta data of Facebook’s billions of users in attempts to exclude competitors.
The investigation also indicated that Meta used data from competing advertising platforms to enhance its Facebook Marketplace service.
Buy Instagram and WhatsApp
In another context, the US Federal Trade Commission alleges that Meta, then known as Facebook, overpaid to buy Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 in order to eliminate emerging threats rather than compete on its own in the mobile ecosystem.
But Boasberg allowed that claim to stand, but rejected the FTC’s claim that Facebook consolidated its dominance by restricting third-party app developers’ access to the platform unless they agreed not to compete with its core services.
