Mark Zuckerberg to Challenge EU Antitrust Charges at July 13 Hearing
According to sources, Meta, the owner of Facebook, will challenge the EU antitrust charges in a private hearing on Friday. The company aims to avoid a substantial penalty after being accused of linking its classified ads service to its social network.
Last December, the European Commission sent a charge sheet to the world’s most popular social network, highlighting two practices that showed Meta was abusing its market power.
It said that tying Meta to the online classifieds service Facebook Marketplace on its social network Facebook gave the former an unfair advantage.
It also disputed Meta’s unfair trading conditions imposed on competing online classifieds services that advertise on Facebook or Instagram.
Meta declined to comment on the hearing, where the commission’s senior competition officials and their counterparts from national watchdogs will be present to hear its arguments.
“The claims of the European Commission are unfounded. We will continue to work with regulators to demonstrate that our product innovation is pro-consumer and pro-competitive,” Meta attorney Tim Lamb said in a statement.
A company can be fined up to 10 percent of its global turnover and ordered to change its business practices if it is found to have breached EU competition rules. It had previously sought to settle the case, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
