The EU fined Facebook more than $1 billion for bundling e-commerce platforms

The EU fined Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, 777.72 million euros for abusive practices that gave its e-commerce platform Facebook Marketplace an unfair competitive advantage.

According to Reuters, the European Commission said in a statement on Thursday (November 14) : "The European Commission has imposed a fine on Meta... The reason is that Meta bundled its online classifieds service Facebook Marketplace with personal social media Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classifieds service providers, in violation of EU antitrust rules."

Meta said it will appeal the decision, but until that is upheld, it will comply with the decision and will quickly develop a plan to address the issues raised by the EU.

The EU decision found that Meta imposed the Facebook marketplace on Facebook users in an illegal form of bundling. Meta argues that this ignores the fact that Facebook users can choose whether or not to participate in the Facebook marketplace, and many do not.

The European Commission said Meta's business model violated antitrust rules two years ago, launched an investigation in June 2021, and raised concerns about Meta's business model in December 2022.

Facebook launched Facebook Marketplace in 2016 and expanded to several European countries a year later.