[German]The EU Commission has fined Meta €797.72 million for tying its online classifieds service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and imposing unfair trading conditions on other providers of online classifieds services.
Advertising
The Commission's investigation found that Meta holds a dominant position on the market for personal social networks, which covers at least the European Economic Area ("EEA"), as well as on the national markets for online display advertising on social media.
In particular, the Commission found that Meta had abused its dominant position in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU):
- Tying the online classifieds service Facebook Marketplace to the personal social network Facebook. This means that all Facebook users automatically have access to Facebook Marketplace and are regularly confronted with it, whether they want to or not. The Commission found that competitors could be excluded from Facebook Marketplace because the tying gives Facebook Marketplace a significant distribution advantage that competitors cannot offset.
- Unilaterally imposing unfair terms and conditions on other online classified ad providers advertising on Meta's platforms, in particular on the very popular social networks Facebook and Instagram. This allows Meta to use the data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace.
The Commission has requested Meta to effectively put an end to the conduct and to refrain from repeating the infringement or using practices with a similar object or effect in the future. At the same time, the EU Commission has imposed a fine of 797.72 million euros in accordance with this notification. In determining the amount of the fine, the Commission took into account the duration and gravity of the infringement as well as the turnover of Facebook Marketplace to which the infringements relate and which thus determines the basic amount of the fine.
Advertising
