Meta to fight EU antitrust allegations in Facebook Marketplace case - report
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) plans to fight EU allegations that the tech giant suppressed competition from classified ad rivals by tying the Facebook Marketplace to its social network, Bloomberg News reported.
On Thursday, at a behind-closed-doors hearing in Brussels, Meta plans to refute EU allegations that the company's behavior was an illegal abuse of dominance, the report added citing people with knowledge of the matter.
In December 2022, the European Commission (EC) alleged, among other things, that by giving Facebook users automatic access to Marketplace, Meta (META) was tamping down on the ability of classified-ad services to reach potential customers. The EC was looking into Meta imposing unfair business conditions on other ad services which use Instagram along with Facebook.
The EC declined to comment on the case ahead of Thursdayâs hearing, according to the report.
The company pointed to a prior statement from its top lawyer in Europe, Tim Lamb who noted that the EU regulator's claims "are without foundation" and that it would "continue to work with regulatory authorities."
In May, the E.U.'s General Court had ruled in favor of a request by EC for more information about Facebook's marketplace.
Meta has been facing the ire of other regulators too over Facebook Marketplace â including U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority, which accepted certain concessions in May.
These include a commitment to allow advertisers to deny use of their data for improving Facebook Marketplace. No such commitments have yet been accepted by the EC, the report added.
Meta has also been seeing regulatory scrutiny on other issues. Earlier in July, the EU's top court ruled that Germany's Federal Cartel Office did not breach its powers when in 2019 the competition regulatory agency imposed restrictions on Facebook related to processing of user data.
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