EU hits Meta with massive fine over Facebook Marketplace unfair practices
European regulators slapped Meta with a huge monetary penalty for breaking competition rules. The tech-giant misused its Facebook platform to gain unfair advantage in classified ads business
This thursday EU regulators dealt a significant blow to Meta – imposing a mind-boggling $840-million fine for mis-using its social-media dominance. The tech-giant broke EU competition rules by connecting Facebook platform with its Marketplace service in ways that hurt other businesses
The Brussels-based commission found that Meta created an un-fair playing field (giving itself a major boost that rivals couldnt match) through its classified-ads service. The investigation showed how the company mixed its main social platform with marketplace: making it hard for other ad services to compete
The EU body pointed out several issues with Metas business model; specifically how it handles third-party advertisers data. The company used info from competing ad platforms to make its marketplace stronger – a practice that breaks anti-trust rules. The social-media giant which owns Instagram and WhatsApp got called out for forcing unfair terms on businesses trying to advertise on its network
