Record fine for Meta: 798 million for unfair competition

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, was fined 797.72 million euros by the European Commission for violation of the antitrust regulations in force in the European Union. The sanction concerns abusive practices linked to Facebook Marketplace, Facebook’s online advertising service.

The European Commission has determined that Meta has created “unfair trading terms” for other online classified ad service providerstying Facebook Marketplace to the Facebook platform. This practice gave Marketplace unfair competitive advantages over other competitors.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said: “Meta has abused its dominant position in the social networking services markets personal and online display advertising on social media platforms”.

The company announced that will appeal the decision, stating that it “ignores the realities of Europe’s thriving market for online classified ad services” and that Facebook Marketplace responds to consumer demand in innovative ways.

This fine is in addition to a series of billion dollar fines that Meta has had to deal with in Europe in recent years for various violations:

• September 2023: over 100 million dollars for a security breach
• January 2023: more than 400 million dollars for several violations
• Maggio 2023: over 1 billion dollars for violations of the GDPR

Additionally, Meta is facing a $600 million damages claim in Spain over a privacy violation case. Fines are calculated on a progressive scale and they can go up to 30% of a company’s sales in the relevant category, according to the European Commission.

These regulatory actions come at a time of political change, especially in the United States, which could influence the regulation of big tech companies globally. It will be important to monitor how the topics of social media, data protection and privacy are treated in the future, three areas that directly concern Meta.