The European Commission has just imposed a record fine of nearly 800 million euros on Meta for anti-competitive practices linked to Facebook Marketplace. A decision which illustrates the EU’s desire to more strictly regulate the digital giants, Apple obviously in the lead.
A historic fine for unfair practices
The European Commission accuses Meta of having abused its dominant position by forcibly linking its Marketplace classifieds service to its social network Facebook. According to Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, Meta “imposed unfair trading conditions” giving Marketplace advantages that competitors could not match.
The fine amounts to precisely 797.72 million euros, making this sanction one of the largest ever imposed by Brussels in the tech sector. Meta immediately announced its intention to appeal, arguing that the decision “ignores market realities” and that Marketplace was created “in response to consumer demand.”
A strong message to digital giants
This decision is part of a broader EU strategy aimed at better regulating the practices of large digital platforms. With the entry into force of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Europe now has a reinforced legislative arsenal to fight against abuse of a dominant position and it does not hesitate to take advantage of it.
For Meta, this is not the first European fine: the group had already been sentenced to a penalty of 110 million euros in 2017 for having provided inaccurate information during the acquisition of WhatsApp as well as numerous sanctions for non-compliance with the GDPR. This new sanction comes as the group has just modified its “pay or consent” model for Facebook and Instagram, in connection with the Meta Verified subscriber, following pressure from regulators.
The repercussions of this decision could extend beyond Meta. Other giants like Apple, which integrates many services into its ecosystem, are already threatened with enormous sanctions if they do not review the functioning of their services in Europe.
