EU to Fine Meta Billions for Alleged Market Abuse in Online Classified Ads

TapTechNews September 18th news, according to the Financial Times, the EU is preparing to impose a huge fine on Meta, because the company is suspected of abusing its dominant market position and dominating the online classified advertising market.

If Meta loses the case, it will face a fine of up to 10% of its global annual revenue. And Meta's 2023 revenue reached 134.9 billion US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 957.768 billion yuan), an increase of 16% compared to the previous year.

The European Commission refused to comment on the case. Although Meta also refused to comment, it quoted a previous statement, saying that the accusations of the European Commission are baseless. We will continue to cooperate with regulatory agencies to prove that our product innovation is beneficial to consumers and competition.

Insiders disclosed that the EU regulatory agency will accuse Meta of bundling its free Marketplace service with the social network to weaken competitors.

Three insiders said that the EU's ruling could be made as early as next month, which is also one of the last few investigations made by the outgoing Margrethe Vestager during her tenure.

This antitrust investigation started in 2019, when competitors accused Facebook (before the name change) of abusing its dominant market position, providing free bundled services, and profiting from the data collected on the platform (mostly from enterprises).

In December 2022, the European Commission provided preliminary investigation results, concluding that Meta caused the online classified advertising market to lose the opportunity for fair competition and used the data obtained for free from enterprises to sell advertisements to users.