The European Commission on Monday said it warned Facebook parent company Meta that it is breaching EU antitrust laws by distorting market competition for online classified advertising and abusing its dominant position.
The Commission said in a preliminary view that it would
further investigate and that it could impose a fine of up to 10% of the
company's annual global turnover, if there is sufficient evidence of an
infringement of European Union rules.
"The claims made by the European Commission are without
foundation," Meta spokesperson Tim Lamb said in a statement.
"We will continue to work with regulatory authorities
to demonstrate that our product innovation is pro-consumer and
pro-competitive," Lamb added.
Sources familiar with the matter last month told Reuters the
EU antitrust regulators were drawing up charges against Meta over its use of
customer data and the tying of its classified advertisements service to its
social network.
The Commission said on Monday that it was concerned that
Meta is imposing "unfair trading conditions" on competitors of its
own classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace, that want to advertise on its
social networks Facebook or Instagram.
The EU competition enforcer launched an investigation into
Facebook in June last year, focusing on whether the social network unfairly
uses advertisers' data to compete with them in the online classified ads
sector.