Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, was fined €797.72 million ($840 million) by the European Commission on Thursday for breaching EU antitrust rules. The Commission found that Meta violated competition laws by tying its online classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace, to its dominant social network, Facebook, and imposing unfair trading conditions on rival classified ads services. This practice automatically gave Facebook users access to Marketplace, whether they wanted it or not, unfairly disadvantaging competitors such as Vinted, eBay, and Le Bon Coin. This marks Meta's first antitrust penalty in the EU and its largest fine to date. Meta has announced plans to appeal the decision, stating that the EU provided no evidence of harm to competitors or consumers.
