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Media reports said that Meta Platforms may be the first tech giant to be fined by the EU antitrust. The fine will be related to Meta's market position and Facebook. The EU accused the company of abusing its dominant position in the classified advertising market by bundling Facebook Marketplace with its social network, violating EU antitrust regulations. The EU is expected to make a decision this fall.

The EU calls Meta's subscription option, which was launched on Facebook and Instagram in Europe last year, a "pay or agree" model - users either agree to data collection and use the Meta app for free, or pay not to share data.

Media reports said that the European Union's antitrust enforcers are preparing to use new powers under the Digital Markets Act to force Facebook to stop using data from rival advertising platforms to compete with it.

The EU believes that Meta's advertising version of the social media service violates the provisions of the Digital Markets Act for two main reasons: 1) Users cannot choose a version that collects less data but provides the same service as the personalized advertising version, and only have two options: no ads/personalized ads. 2) Users are not allowed to exercise the right to "free consent", that is, to decide whether to allow their personal data to be used for online advertising.

Under an upcoming EU order, regulators from the European Commission may require Facebook to create a standalone version of its classifieds platform, which would allow users to log in to Facebook Marketplace without logging into Facebook, people familiar with the matter told the media.

People familiar with the matter told the media that the decision is still in draft form and could change before the decision date this fall. The European Commission is expected to make a decision around September or October this year before Margrethe Vestager, the EU's antitrust chief, leaves in November, but the specific time may be delayed.

If the antitrust decision goes through, Meta could face a fine of up to $13.4 billion, or 10% of its global revenue in 2023. If the penalty reaches this level, it would be the largest fine ever imposed on a technology company in EU history, as EU antitrust fines rarely reach this level.The Digital Markets Act also stipulates that this proportion may rise to 20% for companies that repeatedly violate regulations.

Meta spokesman Matt Pollard said: "The European Commission's allegations are without merit. We will continue to work constructively with regulators to demonstrate that our product innovations benefit both consumers and competition." An EU spokesman declined to comment.

As part of a formal warning issued in December 2022, EU regulators accused Meta of imposing unfair trading terms that enabled it to use data from rival online classifieds services to service its Marketplace platform. Last year, Meta tried to resolve the EU investigation by limiting the use of rival advertising data for Facebook Marketplace, but the concession was rejected by EU enforcers.

In addition to the EU, Facebook Marketplace has also attracted the attention of other regulators, including the UK Competition and Markets Authority; media reports said that the UK competition regulator accepted similar concession proposals as mentioned above.