The European Union’s antitrust regulators have begun investigating the possibility that Facebook’s online marketplace is unfair to competitors in the online classified advertising sector, according to a questionnaire seen by Reuters. Facebook Marketplace was launched in 2016 and is currently used by over one in three Facebook users in the US to buy and sell items. The probe responds to complaints submitted to the European Commission from classified ads rivals concerned that Facebook has used its market power to give it an unfair competitive advantage, said the report.
The EC begun sending numerous questionnaires to various companies in June asking them whether they regard Facebook Marketplace as a close rival in online classified ads services and how many visits to their sites came from online classified ads placed in Facebook’s site. Antitrust regulators are also looking into how the market has developed over the past 5 years as well as Facebook’s commercial ties with its rivals, added the report.
