Meta Offers to Publish EBay Ads on Facebook Marketplace to Comply With EU Antitrust Order

Meta Platforms Inc. offered to publish listings from classified ads rival eBay Inc. on Facebook Marketplace in an effort to comply with a landmark European Union antitrust order that was accompanied by a EUR 798 million ($822 million or roughly Rs. 7,061 crore) fine. 

The Menlo Park, California-based firm said Wednesday it will launch a test in Germany, France and the US that will enable “buyers to browse listings from eBay directly on Facebook Marketplace while completing their transaction on eBay.” 

Despite the changes, the company said in a blog post that it continues to disagree with the EU's decision, and that it's pursuing an appeal through the bloc's courts. EBay shares rose 7.4 percent by 9:19 a.m. in New York trading.

Meta's changes mark an effort to comply with the EU's decision in November, which ordered the company to stop tying its classified-ads service to Facebook's sprawling social media platform, as well as refrain from imposing unfair trading conditions on rival second-hand goods platforms. 

A commission spokesperson said that Meta has a duty to comply with the decision within 90 days after its original decision.

The multi million-euro fine that accompanied the order was one of the final acts of former EU competition chief and Big Tech trustbuster Margrethe Vestager. Under her watch, the Brussels-based regulator levied billions of euros in antitrust penalties against large American technology companies, including over EUR 8 billion in fines against Alphabet Inc.'s Google. 

The allegations against Facebook Marketplace had also been examined by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, which decided to accept concessions from the company instead of pursuing their investigation further. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)