Brussels suspects Facebook of distorting competition

The European Commission announced on Friday June 4 that it had opened a “Formal examination procedure” against Facebook in the online classifieds sector. The competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, indeed suspects the social network of “Distort competition”, by taking advantage of advertising data and promoting the use of its service on its platform.

Concretely, Brussels wonders if the group of Mark Zuckerberg “Violated the competition rules by using advertising data collected in particular from advertisers in order to compete with them in markets where Facebook is present, such as that of online ads”, explains the press release.

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Indeed, the social network, in its “Facebook Marketplace” section, allows users to post classified ads with photos to sell clothes or items, rent an apartment, and so on. But, at the same time, other classifieds services serve ads on Facebook and can therefore “To provide it with valuable data from a commercial point of view.” “Facebook could, for example, obtain precise information on user preferences based on the advertising activities of its competitors and use this data to adapt Facebook Marketplace”, writes the Commission.

In addition, the services of Mme Vestager wonder if Facebook doesn’t “Lie” not the use of Facebook Marketplace to that of its social network, which is prohibited. Brussels will therefore be interested in “The way the classified ads service is integrated into Facebook” to determine if it “Gives it an advantage in reaching customers and crowding out competing services”.

“Preferential treatments”

This procedure is the first initiated by the Commission against Facebook, as part of its preliminary investigation launched in 2019 into the use of advertising data by the social network and by the Google search engine.

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The initiative is reinforced by the announcement, this same Friday, of another investigation targeting Facebook, on the part of the competition authority of the United Kingdom: this one wonders if the company “Abuses its dominant position in social networks through the collection and use of advertising data”.

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These offensives targeting Facebook are reminiscent of those launched by Margrethe Vestager in November 2020 against Amazon, suspected of taking advantage of data from independent retailers who sell on its platform and granting preferential treatment to its own offers or to sellers who use its delivery and storage services. Or the investigations accusing Apple of favoring its contactless payment system or its music service over Spotify.

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