European Commission

The European Commission has fined Meta €797.72 million for breaching EU antitrust rules by tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers. The Commission's investigation found that Meta is dominant in the market for personal social networks, which is at least European Economic Area (‘EEA') wide, as well as in the national markets for online display advertising on social media.

As competition authorities for the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, we share a commitment to the interests of our people and economies. Guided by our respective laws, we will work to ensure effective competition and the fair and honest treatment of consumers and businesses.

The Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network sent a letter following concerns that Meta's ‘pay or consent' model might breach European Union consumer law. The European Commission coordinated this action which is led by the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention.

The European Commission has informed Meta of its preliminary findings that its “pay or consent” advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In the Commission's preliminary view, this binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta's social networks. The Commission takes the preliminary view that Meta's “pay or consent” advertising model is not compliant with the DMA as it does not meet the necessary requirements set out under Article 5(2).