The European Union has levied a €798 million fine against Meta, charging it with anti-trust infringements. The tech conglomerate has been instructed to stop linking its classified ads service with Facebook and to cease imposing unfair trading terms on competing pre-loved marketplaces.
Reports from Bloomberg reveal that this marks the first instance of the US tech giant facing an EU fine for violating competition rules. Meta has announced its intention to contest the ruling.
EU’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, criticized Meta for integrating its Facebook Marketplace with the personal social network Facebook, thereby enforcing inequitable trading terms on other classified ad providers to boost its own service. This, according to her, provided an undue advantage to Facebook Marketplace over its competitors.