Meta Gets Flicked by the EU Commission for Not Dealing Fairly with Its Competitors

JAKARTA - The European Union Commission flicked Meta, saying that the company is not fair to its competitors through its Marketplace service.

Meta allegedly often ties its primary social media site, Facebook to Marketplace, giving it a substantial distribution advantage over its competitors.

EU Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager stated, with its Facebook social network, Meta can reach billions of monthly users globally and millions of active advertisers.

"Our initial concern is that Meta is tying its dominant social network Facebook to an online classifieds service called Facebook Marketplace. This means that Facebook users automatically have access to Facebook Marketplace, (regardless of) whether they want it or not," Vestager said in a broadcast. the press quoted Tuesday, December 20.

Meta according to Vestager, also imposes unfair trading terms on competitors who advertise on Facebook or Instagram.

Where Meta acts fraudulently because it utilizes ad-related data originating from competitors for the benefit of Facebook Marketplace. If this proves to be true, the company will be in breach of EU regulations against abusing market dominance.

The EU also has the power to impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Meta's annual revenue and ban the practice.

"The claims made by the European Commission are unfounded. (The company) will continue to work with regulatory authorities to demonstrate that our product innovations are pro-consumer and pro-competition," responded EMEA Meta's head of competition, Tim Lamb.

As information cited by Engadget, last year the EU also launched an antitrust investigation into Facebook's classified advertising practices to determine whether it violated competition rules by using advertiser data for its own benefit.

The so-called Statement of Objection released today by the EU is a formal step in an EU antitrust investigation, notifying alleged infringers about the complaint filed against them.

By getting this complaint, Meta can now review documents, reply in writing and request an oral audience to submit their comments.