The European Commission decided to impose on Meta, i.e owner Facebook, fines amounting to almost PLN 800 million euro. This fine concerns the Marketplace sales platform launched in 2016, where you can post small advertisements, which are then visible in social networking site.
Penalty for Meta as a result of merging the Marketplace classifieds website with Facebook
The European Commission decided to impose a fine based on the fact that the advertising website Marketplace was connected to Facebook. EU officials said it was a form of abuse of position and unfair practice towards other advertising platforms.
An additional problem was to be the automatic provision of the option to use Marketplace to Facebook users – whether they want it or not. According to Meta, this website was created at the request of Facebook users themselves.
Meta does not intend to pay the fine imposed by the European Commission. The company will appeal
According to the US company, the EU has not provided any evidence that the merger of platforms has in any way harmed users or other classifieds websites, and that it does not take market realities into account.
“The European Commission says Meta imposes Marketplace on people who use Facebook. But it ignores the fact that Facebook users can choose whether to use Marketplace or not, and many don't. The truth is that people use Marketplace, because they want to, not because they have to,” emphasized Meta's representatives. “We will appeal this decision. In the meantime, we will comply with it and work quickly and constructively to implement solutions that address the issues raised,” it said at the end statements.