Meta Hit with Hefty €798m Fine for Unfair Trade Practices!

The tech giant, Meta, has been hit with a hefty fine of €798m by the European Commission for reportedly violating competition regulations by integrating Facebook Marketplace in its social network platform. This move was considered to have created an unbalanced trading environment, thereby posing challenges for alternative classified ads services to compete effectively. Consequently, the Commission has mandated Meta to cease these conditions immediately. Meta has disagreed with the Commission's conclusions and plans to appeal this decision.

The EU antitrust head, Margrethe Vestager, noted that Facebook obstructed other online classified ads services to favour its own, Facebook Marketplace. Vestager stated that Meta was required to halt this behaviour, as the EU discouraged repetition of this violation. In response, Meta claimed the Commission failed to demonstrate any harm towards consumers or competitors and accused it of disregarding market realities.

This decision followed an investigation launched in 2021, after Meta's competitors expressed grievances about Facebook Marketplace's unfair advantage. Prior to this, Meta had been fined €110m in 2017 by the EU for inaccurate information regarding its acquisition of WhatsApp. It also faced additional fines for data mishandling and breaches of competition rules. This development is part of a broader shift towards stricter regulation of tech behemoths globally.

- CyberBeat