Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is facing calls to do more about financial scams on its platform.
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The European Commission imposed the fine on Thursday meta platform Facebook Marketplace lost 797.72 million euros ($840.24 million) due to abuse, Facebook said in a statement, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The European Commission said: “The European Commission fined Meta… for bundling its online classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace with its personal social network Facebook and imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified advertising service providers. , thereby violating EU antitrust rules.
Meta said it will appeal the decision, but in the meantime, it will comply and will work quickly and constructively to introduce solutions that address the issues raised.
Two years ago, the European Commission accused the US tech giant of giving it an unfair advantage by bundling its classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace.
The EU launched formal proceedings against Facebook in June 2021 for possible anti-competitive behavior and in December 2022 expressed concerns about Meta linking its dominant social network Facebook to its online classified advertising service.
Facebook launched Marketplace in 2016 and expanded to multiple European countries a year later.
The EU decision argued that Meta imposed Facebook Marketplace on those who used Facebook in an illegal “tie” manner, but Meta said that argument ignored the fact that Facebook users had a choice whether to use Marketplace, while many users did not.
Meta said that the European Commission claimed that Marketplace may hinder the growth of existing large online markets in the EU, but could not find any evidence of harm to competitors.
Companies that violate EU antitrust rules face fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.
