EU fines Meta nearly 800 million euros for imposing ads

The Executive Office of the European Union believes that Meta improperly linked Facebook Marketplace with its social network Facebook and imposed unfair conditions on competing ad providers, according to a press release. Meta has been ordered to cease these practices and has been fined by the European Commission 798 million euros for imposing small ads on social media users.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager stated in an emailed statement that the company’s actions were solely aimed at benefiting the Facebook Marketplace service, thereby giving it advantages that other online small ad providers cannot match. The 798 million euro antitrust fine is the first for Meta, which is in addition to a 110 million euro fine in 2017 for providing inaccurate and misleading information regarding the acquisition of the WhatsApp application in 2014. The Commission emphasized that Meta is a dominant player in social networks across the EU, as well as in national markets for online ads on social media.

Meta announced in its statement that it will actively work on launching solutions aimed at contesting this EU decision.

– It is disappointing that the Commission has decided to take regulatory action against a free and innovative service built to meet consumer demand, especially as high European political officials constantly call for the EU to be more competitive, innovative, and advanced – the statement reads.

Meta’s competitors complained that the company unfairly linked its online small ads service Marketplace with Facebook and used non-public advertising data to optimize the Marketplace itself, Politico reports. The UK Competition and Markets Authority completed a similar investigation of Meta last year after the company agreed to change how it uses advertiser data. The Commission warned the company in July that its plan risks violating the Digital Markets Act, stating that it may not provide users with a real choice about how their data is processed. EU data protection bodies have also forced the company to change how its advertising model operates.