Statement from the Competition Authority regarding the investigation opened into Meta

The Competition Authority stated regarding the investigation launched into Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, that "the merging of data collected via Threads with other Meta services, and the ability to transfer data from Threads to Instagram to personalize and improve experiences on Instagram and to increase the security and integrity of services, raises anti-competitive concerns regarding data merging."

In the statement made by the Competition Authority, it was recalled that an investigation was launched on November 23 as a result of a preliminary inquiry conducted into Meta, following allegations that "Meta Platforms Inc. violated the relevant article of the Law on the Protection of Competition by linking the application named Threads with the Instagram application."

The statement noted that Meta operates in various markets in Turkey and owns major online social networking service applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It was reported that concerns persist regarding the allegation that "users are required to have an Instagram account to log in to the Threads application, which was launched in July 2023, and that users who want to delete their Threads account are forced to delete their Instagram account as well."

The statement provided information that the tying practice is defined in the relevant law as "imposing conditions on the purchase of another good or service together with a good or service," and used the following expression: "Considering that Meta, unlike industry dynamics, makes it mandatory to be a member of Instagram, which is a different service, to use Threads, and that users cannot leave the application whenever they want without being subject to any conditions and are forced to give up the Instagram application to leave the application, it has been evaluated that the situation in question may cause a limitation of user preferences."

Stating that Meta is able to offer the Instagram product for use independently of Threads, the statement recorded the following:

"The fact that Threads is not offered for use independently of Instagram, considering that the Instagram application has a usage rate of up to 90 percent in Turkey, brings with it the possibility of anti-competitive effects arising in order to protect the market power in the product market where Meta is already considered to be dominant as a result of the application in question. Within the scope of the preliminary inquiry conducted, the merging of data collected via Threads, which is considered to be an independent product/application/service from Instagram, with other Meta services, and the ability to transfer data from Threads to Instagram to personalize and improve experiences on Instagram and to increase the security and integrity of services, raises anti-competitive concerns regarding data merging. Within the scope of the investigation, it will be examined in detail whether Meta's applications violate Article 6 of the Law on the Protection of Competition."

News Source: 12punto