The European Union Commission is launching a formal investigation against Facebook. The reason for this is suspected of infringement of competition in relation to the classified advertising service “Facebook Marketplace”.
European Union Commission formal inquiry started against Facebook Because of suspicion of infringement of competition in the classified advertising service “Facebook Marketplace”. This was announced by the Competition Commissioner of the European Union. Margaret Vestager in Brussels on Friday.
Through the Marketplace, users of the social network can buy and sell goods from each other privately. According to its own information, the EU Commission wants to clarify whether Facebook is using its position in other markets for this service in an anti-competitive manner. If competing companies advertise their services on Facebook, Facebook could capture financially valuable data and then use it against competitors, it is suspected.
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“At the end of its preliminary investigation, the Commission cannot rule out the possibility of Facebook Contest in the area of online classified advertising services,” the commission said. For example, Facebook may obtain accurate information about user preferences from the advertising activities of its competitors. This information may be used to optimize the Facebook Marketplace. is.
“Facebook is used by about three billion people every month and has a total of about seven million advertisers,” Versteger said. “The company collects a large amount of data about the activities of users of its social networks and other services and is therefore able to target specific customer groups.”
The commission will investigate in detail whether Facebook has an unfair competitive advantage for this data. “We must ensure that data is not used to distort competition in today’s digital economy,” emphasized the commission’s deputy chairman.
The test should also be about whether the embedding of Facebook Marketplace into the social network represents a “coupling” with which Facebook can hinder or exclude competing online classified advertising services. This may be a violation of rules to protect against anti-competitive agreements between companies, as stated further. The process will be open ended.
The British Competition and Markets Supervisory Authority (CMA) also launched an investigation into Facebook’s use of data on Friday. The commission continued to try to work together.
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