According to informed sources, Meta platform will receive a huge antitrust fine from the European Union in the coming weeks, citing the company's use of its dominant position in the advertising market to bundle its classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace with its social network.
More than a year ago, the European Commission raised this issue, accusing the American tech giant of bundling its dominant Facebook with its online classified advertising service called Marketplace, which means Facebook users have no choice but to access Marketplace.
The European Commission pointed out at the time that by automatically allowing users to access its product trading platform Facebook Marketplace, Facebook has a "huge distribution advantage that its competitors cannot match".
There are currently reports that Meta may face fines of up to $13.4 billion from EU regulators, equivalent to 10% of its global revenue in 2023, based on this, and EU sanctions typically fall far below this upper limit.
Insiders also revealed that the European Commission may issue a decision in September or October, after which Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner and antitrust commissioner, will step down in November.
Meta reiterated its previous comments regarding potential punitive actions by the European Commission, with company spokesperson Matt Pollard stating, "The Commission's allegations are unfounded. We will continue to work constructively with regulatory agencies to demonstrate that our product innovation is beneficial to consumers and competition
In addition, Meta was also accused by the European Commission this month of failing to comply with its technology antitrust laws.
The reason is that Meta launched a new advertising model of "pay or agree" in November last year. The data of paid users will not be collected for personalized advertising, but free users still have to "passively" accept personalized advertising. The European Commission believes that this model does not comply with the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).