Bulletins

The EU and UK opened new antitrust investigations into Facebook

Facebook
Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images
EU and U.K. regulators launched new antitrust investigations into Facebook's ad data use on Friday. The European Commission said it was investigating whether Facebook used ad data to compete with advertisers on classified ads, while the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority said it was looking into similar allegations around online dating as well.

"When advertising their services on Facebook, companies, which also compete directly with Facebook, may provide it commercially valuable data. Facebook might then use this data in order to compete against the companies which provided it," the European Commission said in a statement. The Commission is particularly concerned about whether Facebook uses other classified ad companies' data to help Facebook Marketplace, its classified ads site, outcompete the competition.

The European Commission is also investigating whether Facebook illegally "ties" Facebook Marketplace to the main Facebook social network. Both U.K. and EU authorities said they would collaborate on the investigations.

 Shakeel Hashim

Shakeel Hashim ( @shakeelhashim) is a former growth manager at Protocol, based in London. He was previously an analyst at Finimize covering business and economics, and a digital journalist at News UK. His writing has appeared in The Economist and its book, Uncommon Knowledge.

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