European Union: Announced antitrust investigation into Facebook for alleged anti-competitive usage of collected advertising data for Facebook Marketplace

Description

Announced antitrust investigation into Facebook for alleged anti-competitive usage of collected advertising data for Facebook Marketplace

On 4 June 2021, the European Commission (EC) opened a formal in-depth antitrust investigation into Facebook for allegedly using collected advertising data to abuse its dominance in the social network and online advertisement market. Specifically, the EC will examine if Facebook uses data it collects through its social network in online classified ads services such as "Facebook Marketplace". Such behaviour would represent a violation of Articles 101 or 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has a similar investigation open, whereby the EC will closely work together with the CMA.

Original source

Scope

Policy Area
Competition
Policy Instrument
Unilateral conduct regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
online advertising provider
Implementation Level
supranational
Government Branch
executive
Government Body
competition authority

Complete timeline of this policy change

Hide details
2021-06-04
under deliberation

On 4 June 2021, the European Commission (EC) opened a formal in-depth antitrust investigation into …

2022-12-19
under investigation

On 19 December 2022, the European Commission (EC) issued a statement outlining its preliminary view…

2024-11-14
in force

On 14 November 2024, the European Commission fined Meta EUR 797.72 million for violating the prohib…

Key regulatory dimensions

Regulated subjects

The businesses, government agencies or individuals affected by this policy or regulatory change.
defendant
1
Type Private organisation
Economic activity platform intermediary: user-generated content
Category Firm-specific

Policy change by business practice

The detailed activities within the scope of this policy or regulatory change.
advertising data: data processing
Regulatory tool
Prohibition of targeted trading partner under-cutting or other discrimination
Sanctions
Regulated subjects
1
corporate data: customer/user behavioural data: data processing
Regulatory tool
Prohibition of targeted trading partner under-cutting or other discrimination
Sanctions
Regulated subjects
1

Policy change by business practice

The detailed activities within the scope of this policy or regulatory change.

advertising data: data processing

corporate data: customer/user behavioural data: data processing

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