EU says Meta is likely breaching antitrust laws

Facebook owner Meta was hit with a formal complaint from European Union antitrust watchdogs for allegedly squeezing out classified ad rivals by tying the Facebook Marketplace to its own social network.

The European Commission said on Monday it issued a so-called statement of objections to Meta, paving the way for potential fines or changes to the firm’s business model.

“With its Facebook social network, Meta reaches globally billions of monthly users and millions active advertisers,” EU Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in an email announcing the escalation of the case. “Our preliminary concern is that Meta ties its dominant social network Facebook to its online classified ad services called Facebook Marketplace, meaning “Facebook users have no choice but to have access to Facebook Marketplace.”

The EU watchdog said it’s also concerned that Meta imposes unfair trading conditions which allow it to use data on competing online classified ad services.

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The case is the latest in a long-running Europe-wide crackdown on the market power of tech firms such as Google, Apple and Amazon that’s led to multiple probes, fines and beefed-up laws. The EU previously fined Facebook for failing to provide correct information in the merger review of the WhatsApp takeover. Meta is also the subject of investigations in the UK and Germany

Tim Lamb, Meta’s head of EMEA competition, said in a statement that the “claims made by the European Commission are without foundation.” He said the company “will continue to work with regulatory authorities to demonstrate that our product innovation is pro-consumer and pro-competitive.”

The Brussels-based EU regulator has been investigating Meta’s Facebook since 2019. The platform sought to curb the probe with lawsuits to limit what information officials could scoop up.

Monday’s move against Meta comes as the EU is poised to announce a settlement in a similar probe into how Amazon uses rivals’ sales data and whether it unfairly favors its own products.

Despite ramping up the Meta case, the EU on Monday also closed a separate antitrust probe into an advertising pact between Meta and Alphabet’s Google dubbed “Jedi Blue, after concluding the agreement didn’t hurt competition. The UK’s CMA is continuing its investigation into the accord. --Bloomberg

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