Report from Bloomberg
In Brief – Meta has announced a further opening of its Facebook Marketplace to classified competitors, allowing classified ad firms in Europe to place their listings on Marketplace through the Facebook Marketplace Partner Program. The cost for these ads will be based on the number of times a user clicks on a button within the listing. The new program follows on a pilot with eBay. Meta’s moves to allow competitors onto its Marketplace platform came after a November decision of the European Commission to fine Meta 800 million euros for unfairly bundling Marketplace into Facebook’s huge social network and abusing its dominance in online advertising. Meta launched Facebook Marketplace in 2016 and quickly integrated it into its core social media platform. Marketplace has since grown into one of the top classifieds ads platforms in many markets, including in Europe. The Commission claimed that tying the Marketplace to Facebook gave the service an unfair advantage over other online classified platforms and consumer-to-consumer shopping competitors, and that Facebook also imposed unfair terms and conditions on those competing businesses when they advertised on Facebook, often requiring them to share user data that was then used to benefit Marketplace. Meta continues to object to the level of the fine and recently filed an appeal at the European General Court.
Context – Competition regulators for the European Union and UK initiated parallel investigations of the Facebook Marketplace in 2021. Meta reached a settlement with British competition regulators in 2023 by agreeing to allow classifieds and shopping services that advertise on Meta’s social media platforms to opt out of data sharing that could be used to benefit Marketplace. European Commission regulators turned down a similar offer. In the EU, the Commission also now regulates Meta as a Digital Markets Act “gatekeeper” and its Marketplace as a “core platform service”, meaning that the company must comply with the law’s 18 requirements on Marketplace without specific antitrust enforcement action.