بتهمة إساءة استخدام الهيمنة في سوق الإعلانات المبوبة! Meta تتعرض لغرامة قدرها 798 مليون يورو من الاتحاد الأوروبي

$Meta Platforms (META.US)$ The company was fined 0.798 billion euros (0.841 billion dollars) by the European Union regulatory agency for bundling its Facebook Marketplace service with its vast social network, marking the first time this American tech giant has been fined for violating EU antitrust laws.

In a groundbreaking decision, the European Commission ordered Meta to stop bundling its classified advertising service with the massive social media platform Facebook, and to avoid imposing unfair trading conditions on competitors in the second-hand commodity platform.

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager stated: "Meta has bundled its online classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace with its personal social network Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classified advertising service providers. It did this to benefit its own Facebook Marketplace service."

This fine may be one of Vestager's final actions as she is set to leave by the end of this year. Over the past decade, she has been one of Silicon Valley's harshest critics, having imposed anti-trust fines on Google ranging in the billions of euros, including fines exceeding 8 billion euros.

This decision was made after investigating how Meta exploited Facebook's billions of users to squeeze out competitors. The EU regulatory bodies stated that Meta also used data from competitors' platforms that advertised on Facebook to enhance its Marketplace service.

In response, Meta stated that the company will appeal to the EU court, a process that may take years. It claimed that this punishment "ignores the reality of the thriving European market" and "protects large existing companies."

It is understood that Amazon managed to escape fines from the EU in a similar case in 2022, where the American e-commerce company was accused of plundering sales data from competitors to unfairly favor its own products. Regulatory agencies accepted some of Amazon's proposals, including committing to stop using non-public data of independent sellers for its competitors' retail trade on its marketplace.

Facebook's Marketplace has also become a target for other regulatory institutions. After agreeing to a series of concessions, the company reached a settlement with the united kingdom's competition and markets authority.

Meta's financial report shows quarterly sales of $40.6 billion as of September 30, a 19% year-on-year increase. In recent years, Meta has worked to balance its massive expenditures on technologies like ai and virtual reality while still ensuring that its core digital advertising business continues to grow.

While the european union can impose fines of up to 10% of global sales, its penalties are usually much smaller and take into account the severity of the accusations and the submarkets involved.

This has led to frustration among regulators, who have called for stricter remedies, including more structural solutions. Like the usa, the european union has been considering the potential break-up of google to alleviate concerns about its dominant position in advertising technology.

The new digital markets act (DMA) consolidates traditional antitrust law by imposing strict protections on silicon valley companies.

The european commission has launched an investigation into google and Meta to examine their compliance with the DMA, while apple (AAPL.US) may soon face its first fines from the european union for failing to comply with regulations. This week, Meta adjusted the way users are targeted for ads on Facebook and instagram to mitigate the intensification of the investigation.

Editor/Lambor