The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom have opened antitrust investigations into Facebook’s use of advertising data in its classified advertising business, with a focus on investigating how Facebook uses data. users in the online advertising market and oppress competitors.
Social network icon Facebook. Photo: AFP/VNA This is the first antitrust investigation that European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager has launched against the world’s number one social media provider and the latest she has launched into an American “tech giant”. Ms. Vestager had previously forced Alphabet – Google’s parent company to pay a fine of 8 billion euros (about 9.7 billion USD) and is conducting a similar investigation to Amazon and Apple. During the Facebook investigation, Ms. Vestager said she would review Facebook’s huge data warehouse collected from 7 million companies that have participated in advertising on this social network. The European Commission (EC) and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are investigating the possibility of Facebook exploiting its dominant position in the social network or digital advertising by collecting collects and uses data, and examines Facebook’s “distortion” of the advertising market through service classification. Ms. Vestager stressed that in today’s digital economy, data should not be used in ways that undermine competition. This tech giant may have to change its business model with large fines. Reacting to the EU and UK’s decision, Facebook said it will fully cooperate with the authorities of both sides to demonstrate that Facebook’s integrated “Marketplace” and dating platform provides all people with more choices and all operate in a highly competitive environment. In the role of “gatekeeper”, Facebook as well as other social networking platforms have collected a large amount of personal private information of users based on privacy terms to develop an integrated platform. Marketplace aims to increase competitive advantage over competitors. In the past, the UK has rarely conducted independent antitrust investigations into US tech giants. Since withdrawing from the EU, the UK’s antitrust division has become an independent global regulator. Andrea Coscelli, CEO of the CMA, has pledged to tackle companies like Google and Facebook with a series of antitrust lawsuits, and said he is open to working alongside colleagues in Brussels.
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