Turkiye: Issued ruling regarding compliance measures in investigation into Meta for combining data collected from its core services accepting Meta's proposals and finalising fine

On 8 May 2024, the Competition Authority issued a ruling in its investigation into Meta for combining data collected from its core services. The Authority accepted Meta's proposed solutions to the obligations imposed by the Authority and finalised a fine of approximately TRY 551'557'589.86. In the investigation, the Authority found that Meta's merging of data from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp hindered competitors' activities in social media and online advertising. It instructed Meta to present compliance measures within a month of receiving the reasoned decision and to implement them within six months, providing yearly reports for five years. However, Meta's proposals were deemed insufficient by the authority. Consequently, until proper compliance measures were registered, Meta faced a daily fine based on 0.005% of its 2022 gross revenues. After further discussions, Meta's compliance measures were considered adequate, leading to the conclusion of the fine period. According to these measures, users can prevent data merging unless they choose to combine their accounts, with an simple option for separating previously merged accounts.