The EU’s executive branch is not shying away from imposing heavy fines on major tech companies. The European Commission has fined Meta €797.12 million ($842 million) for violating antitrust regulations.
The EC says Meta “abused its dominant position” in the social networking space by linking Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and “imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ad service providers.” Regulators determined that all Facebook users are “regularly exposed” to the Marketplace, even if they do not wish to be.
To this end, the link between the two services gives Meta “a substantial distribution advantage that competitors cannot match.” In addition, the EC found that third-party classified ad services that advertise on companies like Facebook and Instagram were subject to unfair trading conditions.
“This allows Meta to use advertising-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace,” regulators argued. The fine was determined based on the duration and extent of the violations as well as Meta’s revenue. The Commission also told Meta to end the practice and to refrain from repeating such conduct or attempting anything similar. Meta said it would appeal the decision.
It claimed, “This decision ignores the realities of the thriving European market for online classifieds listing services and protects large incumbents from a new entrant, Facebook Marketplace, which meets consumer demand in innovative and convenient new ways.” The company is trying to appease European regulators on other fronts.
The EC said in preliminary findings of an ongoing investigation that Meta violated the Digital Markets Act with its approach to ad-free subscriptions, as it requires EU users to consent to or pay to avoid highly targeted advertising. This week, Meta reduced monthly subscription fees and said it would offer an advertising option that would not use as much user data, although it would include some unskippable ads.
This was quite a challenge, as the landscape was filled with countless contenders. As expected, most of the things we saw at this CES had an AI component, with a notable increase in AR glasses, hearing aid earbuds, solar-powered tech, robot vacuums, and even emotional support robots. (Apparently people really like robovacs that can pick up socks.) Our team also found more growth in tech designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities and mobility issues.
Along with all the new variations we saw on traditional tech like laptops, TVs, and soundbars, we also saw a lot of weird off-beat tech at the show. And we were pleasantly surprised to see that some of the recently announced CES 2025 products were actually already available for sale or preorder.