Meta Challenges $840 Million EU Antitrust Penalty

As expected, Meta has launched an appeal against the EU Commission’s findings that it breached European anti-trust rules by building Facebook Marketplace into the app, thereby using its scale to give it an unfair advantage over classified competitors.

Back in November, the European Commission handed Meta a €797.72 million ($US841 million) fine for breaches of EU antitrust rules related to the linking of Facebook Marketplace to Facebook, and the market advantages that provides for Facebook’s user-listed market service.

The fine stems from an investigation that began back in 2022, when the Commission alleged that Facebook was breaching local antitrust regulations by “distorting competition in markets for online classified ads” and abusing its dominant position.

The Commission’s view was that Facebook was using the scale of its social network to give Facebook Marketplace an unfair advantage over other online classifieds providers, because Facebook users were being given access to Marketplace “whether they want it or not.” The Commission also suggested that Meta had imposed unfair trading conditions on competing online classified ads services that advertise on Facebook or Instagram.

And after a two year investigation, the EU Commission handed down this huge fine, which Meta’s now looking to challenge, as part of a broader pushback by the company against what it sees as regulatory overreach.

As reported by Bloomberg:

“A [Meta] spokesperson confirmed it had filed the appeal to the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg, a move that escalates the social media giant’s running feud with the EU over its crackdown on Big Tech.”

Indeed, Meta’s execs have long been critical of EU regulations, and the restrictions that they place on innovation and development. Meta’s also publicly criticized the EU’s regulations on AI, which have limited its ability to launch its AI chatbot and image creation tools to European users.

That’s part of the reason why Zuckerberg is now looking to work more closely with President Trump, as he outlined in a recent interview on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Zuckerberg explained how he wants the U.S. government to intervene and stop EU regulators from fining American tech companies for breaching antitrust rules, and other violations.

As per Zuckerberg:

“The EU has fined the tech companies more than $30 billion over the last, I think it was like 10 or 20 years, so when you think about it, what it really adds up to is this kind of EU-wide policy for how they want to deal with American tech. It's almost like a tariff, and I think the US government basically gets to decide how they’re going to deal with it. If some other country was screwing with another industry that we cared about, the U.S. government would probably find some way to put pressure on them, but I think what’s happened here is actually the complete opposite, [with the] U.S. government [leading] the attack against the companies, which then makes it like the EU is free to just go to town on all the American companies and do whatever you want.”

Essentially, Zuckerberg’s point is that anti-tech regulation in the U.S. encourages other regions to implement similar approaches, which allows EU regulators to implement huge fines, impacting the growth of American companies. Which he believes Trump will help to redress.

“I don't want to come across as if we don't have things that we need to do better, obviously we do, and when we mess something up, we deserve to be held accountable for that, just like everyone else. [But] I do think that the American technology industry is a bright spot in the American economy, I think it's a strategic advantage for the United States that we have a lot of the strongest companies in the world, and I think it should be part of the U.S.'s strategy going forward to defend that. It's one of the things that I'm optimistic about with President Trump is I think he just wants America to win.”

Zuckerberg hopes that Trump will help to ensure that U.S. companies are defended in their foreign dealings, which could then help to take down regulatory barriers, and pave the way for international growth.

And this case is a key example of Zuckerberg’s issue, that EU regulatory bodies are essentially penalizing American tech companies for their success, via overly restrictive policies and findings, which, in his view, the government could assist with.

Maybe that’s the broader hope in this case, that if Meta challenges this fine, and extends proceedings, that will give the Trump Administration more time to review the case, and potentially impose sanctions or other restrictions to pressure EU authorities out of this fine.

Either way, it does seem like Meta has a case, and it’ll be interesting to see if Zuckerberg’s faith in Trump on this front does end up reaping dividends for the company.