European Union’s antitrust watchdog has levied charges against Facebook parent Meta (META.O) due to its use of customer data and it’s tie up with classified advertisements service to its social network, according to people familiar with the matter, who chose to be anonymous.
The European Union’s antitrust commission, which can charge fines up to 10% of a company’s worldwide turnover for antitrust violations and Meta refused to comment.
The Commission started a probe into the social media company in June last year. Britain’s competition agency also initiated an enquiry on the same day.
In the past few months, the Commission sought Meta rivals to erase confidential information from their submissions to the regulator. Typically, that is the forerunner to the Commission sending companies under probe into a statement of objections explaining what it sees as anti-competitive practices.
Meta’s classified ads business called Facebook Marketplace was started in 2016 and is accessible in 70 countries to buy and sell items.
It was first reported by Politico.