Dirk Auer on the EU’s Meta Decision
ICLE Director of Competition Policy Dirk Auer was quoted by Reason in a story about the European Commission’s decision against Meta for using data advertisers give to Facebook Marketplace. You can read the full piece here.
In any event, those competitors are generally doing fine. Dirk Auer, director of competition policy at the International Center of Law and Economics, points out that each classified ad service provider has different product segments and different means of accessing users. Thanks to this differentiation, Auer says, “rivals have thrived…while Facebook’s marketplace remains a secondary player.”
Auer wonders why the commission has prosecuted “this shaky case of limited policy importance.” One possible answer: The commission’s antitrust fines are paid into the general European Union (E.U.) budget. As the commission notes, “Member States’ contributions to the E.U. budget for the following year are reduced accordingly.”