Europe fines Meta 840 million USD for violating competition laws with Facebook Marketplace.

The fine of 800 million Euros, equivalent to 840 million USD, imposed by the European Commission on the Meta group last Thursday is the result of an antitrust investigation into the Facebook Marketplace e-commerce platform. This is the latest move by European market regulators in their efforts to limit the power of the giant Meta corporation, targeting new online business sectors.
The conclusion of European market regulators is that Meta has created an unfair competitive advantage to surpass industry rivals by integrating Marketplace as an add-on service with the Facebook social network. By directly integrating Marketplace into Facebook, Meta almost immediately gained hundreds of millions of potential users, turning the social network into a perfect platform for operating e-commerce services.
Additionally, according to digital market regulators, Meta has exploited its monopoly position in the online advertising market, imposing unfair business regulations on online shopping platforms considered competitors of Facebook Marketplace. One of those regulations is the requirement to collect user data from competing platforms to strengthen the position of Marketplace.
For many years, European market regulators, led by Margrethe Vestager, have made every effort to limit the power of giant technology corporations, preventing these companies from leveraging competitive advantages to manipulate entire segments of online business, from social media to e-commerce. European authorities had previously made similar accusations against Apple, claiming that the company had exploited its position in the smartphone market to strengthen its monopoly in the digital music and online payment sectors through Apple Music and the App Store.
However, the fact is that this also marks the end of Ms. Vestager’s tenure in managing the digital market sector. The fine of over 800 million dollars that the EU imposed on Meta is one of her final moves before resigning. After a decade of managing competition policy and working to ensure the European Union market has stricter regulations for the technology sector, Ms. Vestager will soon be replaced by Ms. Teresa Ribera, a Spanish official.
According to market regulators in the European Union, the direct integration of Marketplace into the Facebook social network has allowed Meta to “create advantages for itself that other online shopping and classifieds services cannot achieve.” This is a violation of the law under European antitrust regulations. “Meta must stop this behavior immediately,” quoted from Ms. Vestager’s official statement.
Meta naturally issued a statement saying it would appeal this fine in court, and this legal battle could drag on for many years. Meta stated that Marketplace, launched in 2016, was created to respond to the needs of Facebook’s social media users and was not designed to hinder competition from similar services like eBay or Vinted.
In Meta’s official statement: “Facebook users have the complete right to choose whether or not to use the Marketplace service, and many people do not use this service.” The fact is that people use Facebook Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to.”
Recalling the events of 2023, Meta was fined 1.26 billion USD by the European Commission for violating regulations on personal data protection of online service users in this market. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission is suing Mark Zuckerberg’s corporation for allegations of digital market monopoly.
The open question now is whether Europe and the United States will still agree on efforts to control the power of giant tech corporations when President Donald Trump officially takes office in January next year. Previously, many of Trump’s allies, including the soon-to-be Vice President JD Vance, had made statements and expressed concerns about the market-dominating power of companies like Google and Meta. But there are also some of Trump’s allies who are calling for a loosening of regulations.