Meta has reluctantly opened its Facebook Marketplace platform to classified ads rivals after regulators imposed a A$1.32 billion fine on the company.
It will allow classified ad firms in Europe to pay to place their listings on Facebook Marketplace in order to comply with an EU antitrust order. The cost will be based on the number of times a user clicks on a button within the listing.
Facebook said that although it has implemented this change, it continues to disagree with the EU’s decision which has forced it do so.
It reiterated earlier comments from Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg calling the EU antitrust fines tantamount to a tariff regime.
The Brussels-based commission said it is “currently assessing whether Meta has fully complied with the decision,” reported Bloomberg.
In November, the EU’s competition arm said that the fine it was imposing on Meta was for the company breaching EU antitrust rules by tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers.
In January, Meta undertook a pilot programme to publish listings from classified ads rival eBay on Facebook Marketplace.
The test was launched in Germany, France and the US to enable “buyers to browse listings from eBay directly on Facebook Marketplace while completing their transaction on eBay.”
The latest announcement from Meta shows that it has opened up Marketplace within the EU to all of its rivals.
Apart from Meta, the EU has also imposed steep fines and opened investigations into the other major US tech companies including Google and Apple.
In September last year, Apple lost a legal fight in the EU over a €13 billion (A$21.55 billion) Irish tax bill, while Google too lost its challenge over a €2.4 billion (A$3.98 billion) fine for abusing its market power.
