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The
Commission said in a preliminary view that it would further
investigate and that it could impose a fine of up to 10% of the
company's annual global turnover, if there is sufficient
evidence of an infringement of European Union rules.
"The claims made by the European Commission are without
foundation," Meta spokesperson Tim Lamb said in a statement.
"We will continue to work with regulatory authorities to
demonstrate that our product innovation is pro-consumer and
pro-competitive," Lamb added.
Sources familiar with the matter last month told Reuters the EU
antitrust regulators were drawing up charges against Meta over
its use of customer data and the tying of its classified
advertisements service to its social network.
The Commission said on Monday that it was concerned that Meta is
imposing "unfair trading conditions" on competitors of its own
classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace, that want to
advertise on its social networks Facebook or Instagram.
The EU competition enforcer launched an investigation into
Facebook in June last year, focusing on whether the social
network unfairly uses advertisers' data to compete with them in
the online classified ads sector.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Foo Yun Chee, editing by Tassilo
Hummel and Alexander Smith)
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