Meta Platforms Inc to fight EU charges over Facebook marketplace abuse

By Samuel Stolton

Meta Platforms Inc. is set for a showdown with the European Union over allegations it crushed competition from classified ad rivals by tying the Facebook Marketplace to its massive social network.
 

At a behind-closed-doors hearing in Brussels on Thursday, the social media platform will attempt to rebut EU claims its behavior was an illegal abuse of dominance, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The European Commission issued a so-called statement of objections against California-based Meta in December. While companies have a right to defend themselves, such filings can be followed by hefty fines as well orders to fix business models.

EU watchdogs alleged that Meta imposed unfair trading terms that enable it to use data on competing online classified ad services for its Marketplace platform. They also pointed to how Meta made access to Facebook Marketplace conditional on having a Facebook social media account. 

The commission declined to comment on the case ahead of Thursday’s hearing. 

Meta pointed to a previous statement from Tim Lamb, the company’s top lawyer in Europe, saying the EU regulator’s claims “are without foundation” and that the it would “continue to work with regulatory authorities.” 

Facebook Marketplace has also been targeted by other regulators, including Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority, which accepted a slate of concessions in May. 

These include a pledge to allow advertisers to opt out of having their data used to improve the Facebook Marketplace. No such commitments have yet been accepted by the EU’s antitrust branch.

The EU commission has been probing Facebook since 2019. The platform lost a case in May seeking to limit what information officials could collect.

The EU’s second-highest court ruled that the company had failed to prove that the requests for details “went beyond what was necessary” or that EU measures taken since didn’t sufficiently protect sensitive data. 

More recently, Meta found itself on the losing side of another EU court decision, in which the bloc’s Court of Justice backed a German antitrust order which targeted the US tech firm’s power to cash-in on a vast trove of users’ data.