Competition law implications of tying different products and exclusive data use

Last week, the European Commission imposed a fine of EUR 797 million on Meta for abusing its dominant position in the (at least) EEA-wide market for personal social networks and the national markets for online display advertising services on social media.

Firstly, the Commission accuses Meta of tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace with its social network Facebook. This means that Facebook users are automatically shown the Marketplace adverts when they use Facebook. This distribution advantage is not available to Meta's competitors and, in the Commission's view, could foreclose them from the market.

Secondly, the Commission accuses Meta of using unfair trading conditions vis-à-vis competitors that advertise on Facebook and Instagram. If these competitors generate ads-related data from platform users, this data is exclusively available to Facebook Marketplace.
Meta has announced that it will appeal against the decision.

- Background -

The Commission's decision concerns typical competition law issues in digital business models and is therefore of significance beyond the case at hand.

Companies with a dominant market position are subject to special behavioural obligations under EU competition law. Tying of separate products can violate EU competition law if customers can only purchase these products together and if the tying can lead to exclusionary effects for competitors.

The second part of the decision concerns the exclusive use of data. User data can have a considerable competitive significance for digital business models. Under EU competition law, dominant companies may therefore be obliged to grant competitors access to data.

If you have any questions in connection with this decision, we will be happy to support you with our competition law expertise.