The Turkish Competition Authority on Wednesday said that it will be imposing a daily fine of 4.8 million Turkish lira ($160,000) on Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook.
The penalty follows as a result of Meta’s failure to provide adequate documentation as part of a prior investigation into the online video advertising market in 2022.
To recall, in October 2022, the Turkish Competition Board imposed a fine of 346.72 million liras ($18.63 million) on Meta for violating competition law by collecting and merging the data from its three social media apps, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The watchdog noted that the company was able to hold a dominant position in personal social networking services, consumer communication services, and online video advertising markets due to the merging of data collected from its social media platforms.
As a result, this made it difficult for its competitors to operate in online display advertising markets with personal social networking services and created barriers to market entry.
Meta was asked to submit a document outlining the compliance measures to stop its violation of the law and to restore competition in the online video advertising industry.
However, the company failed to provide sufficient documentation with regards to Meta’s compliance measures, as a result of which, the Turkish competition board imposed a new fine of 4.8 million lira ($160,160.16) per day starting December 12, 2023, until a final compliance solution is submitted to the board by the tech company.
Further, the board has given Meta one month to “submit the necessary measures” and six months to endorse them. In addition, the tech giant will have to submit reports to the board once a year for the next five years.
“We disagree with the Turkish Competition Authority’s findings but will continue to constructively cooperate with the Turkish Competition Authority to resolve the matter without delay”, a spokesperson for Meta said.
