Investigation concluded: 898 million lira fine for META!

The competition investigation into META has been concluded following the acceptance of the compliance measures it proposed. The total administrative fine imposed on META by the Competition Board has reached 898 million lira.

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Investigation concluded: 898 million lira fine for META!

The administrative fine imposed by the Competition Board on META, on the grounds that it made the activities of its competitors in the social network services and online display advertising markets difficult and created barriers to market entry by combining the data it collected, has reached 898 million lira.

The Competition Authority shared information regarding the investigation process into the company via its social media accounts.

A FINE OF 346 MILLION LIRA HAD BEEN IMPOSED

Accordingly, in 2022, the Board had imposed an administrative fine of 346 million lira on META on the grounds that it made the activities of its competitors in the social network services and online display advertising markets difficult and created barriers to market entry by combining the data it collected from its Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp services.

The Board also imposed obligations on the company to submit to the Board the measures it would take to remedy the violation and restore effective competition in the market, and to implement these measures within 6 months.

REQUESTED RE-CONSENT

Furthermore, the Board requested that META obtain re-consent from users who had previously given consent for the merging of their data between Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp services.

During this process, META submitted certain compliance measures to the Board, but these measures were not deemed sufficient to address anti-competitive concerns. Consequently, the Board decided to impose a daily administrative fine on the company until compliance measures capable of addressing these concerns were submitted.

The compliance measures finally submitted to the Board by the company on April 5 were deemed sufficient to terminate the violation and restore effective competition in the market.

In this process, the Board terminated the daily administrative fine imposed on the company and applied an administrative fine of 551 million 557 thousand 590 lira for 115 days.

Thus, a total administrative fine amounting to 898 million lira was imposed on the company during the investigation and compliance process.

MERGED ACCOUNTS CAN BE SEPARATED

According to the compliance measures submitted by META, users' personal data cannot be combined by META unless users merge their accounts on the Facebook and Instagram applications via the "Accounts Center".

Users who have previously merged their accounts will encounter a new "Consent Screen" as of June. Thus, users will be able to separate the accounts they had previously merged.

In addition to the right to choose, users will be informed in detail on this screen about which of their data will be combined and in what way.

If users change their minds, they will have the opportunity to merge the data regarding the account or accounts they wish again via the "Accounts Center".

News Source: AA