Meta fined €798m by EU in antitrust case over ads

The fine is for tying its online classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace, to Facebook and for imposing "unfair" trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers.

Unlike privacy fines issued by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, the money will not go to the Irish taxpayer, but into a European fund.

"Today we fine Meta €797.72 million for abusing its dominant positions in the markets for personal social network services and for online display advertising on social media platforms" said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice-president in charge of competition policy.

"Meta tied its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook... to benefit its own service, thereby giving it advantages that other online classified ads service providers could not match. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour."

Facebook's behaviour, said Ms Vestager, meant that all Facebook users automatically had access and were regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace whether they wanted it or not. The company could then impose "unfair trading conditions" on other online classified ads service providers who advertised on both Facebook and Instagram, allowing Meta to use ads-related data generated by other advertisers "for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace".

The punshiment comes after Ireland's data protection commissioner (DPC) fined Meta €91m in September for storing passwords in plain text.

That penalty brought the amount Meta has been fined by Ireland's privacy watchdog to over €2bn, with the total amount in fines on big tech firms in Ireland now reaching €3.4bn, all of which goes to the Irish Exchequer.