The French Competition Authority on Thursday issued precautionary measures against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for practices “that may constitute an abuse of a dominant position” in the field of advertising verification.
These measures, which will be in force until the publication of a decision on the merits, are the result of a referral in October 2022 from the French company Adloox, which specializes in measuring the visibility of online advertisements.
Among the pronounced measures, the Meta must suspend the application of its current eligibility criteria and make public new criteria for access to its alliances that are “objective, transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate”, and “facilitate the integration of ‘Adloox to its associations’.
According to the authority, the “access conditions” to two association programs offered by Meta “could constitute an abuse of dominant position and seriously and immediately harm both the interests of Adloox and independent advertising verification.”
The players in this market access data from the main social platforms and guarantee advertisers that the ads are actually seen by Internet users, in a context that does not damage the image of the brand.
According to the WFD
World leader in social networks, “Meta does not publish the criteria to access its associations” and, assuming that they are “transparent, they could be considered barriers to entry” due in particular to their complexity, declared the president of the Benoît Authority. Coeuré during a press conference.
“(Meta’s) refusal to include Adloox in its programs since 2016 is potentially discriminatory” and has had consequences, including a loss of customers, “a sharp drop in billing” and a payroll cut in half, it added.
The authority also justified these emergency measures by the upcoming arrival of the European Regulation on digital markets (DMA) which includes new competition obligations for the main web players.
The regulation “will potentially allow within a few months an opening and development of the market” for verification of advertising, in particular for the benefit of smaller players, Mr. Coeuré explained.
“It is important that the competitive landscape is competitive and open when the WFD comes into force, in a year’s time. (…) In the meantime, we are not going to pick up the pencils,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
