Meta to show rival ads providers on Marketplace after EU antitrust fine

BRUSSELS : Meta Platforms will allow rival classified ads service providers to post listings of their ads on Facebook Marketplace, the company said on Thursday, three months after it was hit with a 797-million euro ($828 million) EU antitrust fine for giving its own service an unfair advantage.

The European Commission in its decision in November said the U.S. tech giant had imposed unfair trading conditions on its rivals and had also tied Facebook Marketplace to its social network Facebook in breach of EU antitrust rules.

Calling it the Facebook Marketplace Partner Progam, Meta said the scheme is a response to the EU competition watchdog even as it challenged the fine in court.

It echoed recent comments by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, saying that the EU decision "serves as another example of the EU directly targeting U.S. companies in a manner that is tantamount to a tariff regime".

Meta said it tested the partner scheme in Germany, France and the United States with eBay last month.

"This new program will mean that third-party partners (specifically, online classified ad service providers as defined in the European Commission's decision) will be able to list their consumer-to-consumer inventory on Facebook Marketplace," Meta said in a blogpost.

"That inventory will appear side by side with other third-party inventory and Facebook user listings."

The Commission said it was currently assessing whether Meta has fully complied with the November ruling.

($1 = 0.9630 euros)

(This story has been corrected to say 'post listings of their ads' from 'to list ads' in paragraph 1)