Pay Up, Zuck: Meta Slapped with $840 Million Fine in Europe over

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been hit with a massive €797.72 million fine (roughly $840 million) by the European Commission for breaching EU antitrust rules related to its online classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace.

TechCrunch reports that the European Commission announced yesterday that it would fine Meta nearly $840 million for abusing its dominant position in the markets for personal social network services and online display advertising on social media platforms. The fine is the latest development in a case that dates back to June 2021, with the regulators determining in December 2022 that Facebook Marketplace violated antitrust rules.

According to Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president in charge of competition policy, Meta tied its Facebook Marketplace service to its personal social network Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers. This behavior was aimed at benefiting Facebook Marketplace, giving it advantages that competitors could not match, which is illegal under EU antitrust rules.

In response to the ruling, Facebook has stated that it will appeal the decision, arguing that it ignores the realities of the thriving European market for online classified listing services and shields large incumbent companies from a new entrant, Facebook Marketplace, which meets consumer demand in innovative and convenient ways.

This fine is the latest in a series of billion-dollar penalties that Meta has faced in Europe over the past several years for various infringements. In September, the company was fined over $100 million related to a security breach that exposed user passwords. In January 2023, it faced fines totaling more than $400 million for a series of violations. Additionally, in May 2023, Meta was fined over $1 billion for GDPR violations.

Separately, the company has faced other legal issues in Europe, including a $600 million damages claim in Spain related to a privacy breach case, as reported in December 2023. While regulatory cases can take years to complete, with Meta being in various stages of appeals around these fines, the company has settled some cases, such as the 2019 case with the FTC in the U.S., where it paid $5 billion and put new privacy practices in place.

The European Commission calculates fines on a sliding scale, which can amount to up to 30 percent of a company’s sales in the relevant category. The timing of this fine is significant, as it comes during a period of changing political tides, particularly in the U.S., where the executive and legislative branches are now controlled by the Republicans. This shift could have repercussions on how Big Tech is regulated, not only in the U.S. but also in other parts of the world.