“President UOKiK initiated explanatory proceedings after the changes introduced to the website Facebook by the company managing this platform from the American Meta group. Content Polish publishers on the platform are displayed in the form of a single link, and not as a graphical preview of the material, as it was before,” – said in message UOKiK. The office decided to initiate proceedings in this case “to check the practices owners social media, in particular whether Meta was able to abuse its market position in this way.
Proceedings have been initiated regarding changes to Facebook. The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection will look at specific practices
– From the perspective of press publishers, Facebook is an important content distribution channel. Many users of the platform look for current events from Poland and the region. Meta's actions could have significantly reduced reader engagement and had a negative impact on the number of views of press materials – commented Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. The statement recalled that, according to antitrust law, “entrepreneurs with a dominant position on a given market cannot use it to the detriment of other entities, e.g. by creating onerous contract terms for them.”
Importantly, the explanatory proceedings are conducted in the case and not against the entrepreneurs concerned. The Office emphasized that the use of competition-restricting practices may result in a financial penalty of up to 10%. turnover.
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