Blog Playbooks · Who Keeps Score · Part 7
The EU fined Meta over terms on other advertisers' data. Meta is appealing.
In 2024 the European Commission fined Meta €797.72 million over terms that let it use rival advertisers' ad data for Facebook Marketplace. In the U.S., Meta beat the FTC in 2025. Part 7 of Who Keeps Score.
When you advertise on Facebook or Instagram, you hand Meta a lot: your audiences, your budgets, your creative, and the record of who clicked and who converted. Most of the time that is the deal working as intended. You share data, Meta finds people, you pay for results.
The question this part takes up is narrow and documented. What happens when the company that runs the ad platform also runs a product that competes with some of its advertisers? In one case, the European Commission has answered. Meta disagrees and is appealing. And in the United States, Meta beat the Federal Trade Commission in November 2025. This is not legal advice.
What the European Commission found
On November 14, 2024, the European Commission fined Meta €797.72 million under Article 102, the EU rule against abusing a dominant position. The Commission found Meta dominant in the market for personal social networks across at least the European Economic Area, and in national markets for online display advertising on social media.
It found two abuses. The first was tying Facebook Marketplace, Meta's classified ads service, to Facebook itself, so that "all Facebook users automatically have access and get regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace whether they want it or not." The second is the one that matters to advertisers. The Commission found Meta was "unilaterally imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers who advertise on Meta's platforms, in particular on its very popular social networks Facebook and Instagram."
This allows Meta to use ads-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace.
Margrethe Vestager, then the Commission's competition chief, was direct: "This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour." The Commission ordered Meta to end the conduct and not repeat it.
Source: European Commission press release IP/24/5801, November 14, 2024
Read the finding carefully, because it is easy to overstate. It concerns one group of advertisers: other online classified ads services that bought ads on Facebook and Instagram, and so competed with Marketplace. It is a finding about Meta's terms and what they allowed. It is not a finding that Meta uses every advertiser's campaign data against them, and nothing in the public record we found says that about a gym, a spa or a salon.
What Meta says, and where the appeal stands
Meta rejects the decision. In its response, as reported by PYMNTS, Meta said: "The reality is that people use Facebook Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to." On the data point, Meta said: "But we don't use advertisers' data for this purpose and we have already built systems and controls to ensure that." Meta said it would comply while it appealed, and a spokesperson later confirmed to Bloomberg that it was appealing the fine, as reported by PYMNTS in January 2025.
That appeal is with the EU courts. We found no ruling on it. Until there is one, the Commission's decision stands as the regulator's finding and Meta's position stands as its defense.
The Commission's finding
Meta is dominant in personal social networks and in social media display advertising. Its terms for rival classified ads services that advertised on Facebook and Instagram let it use their ads-related data "for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace." Fine: €797.72 million.
Meta's position
People use Marketplace "because they want to, not because they have to." Meta says it does not use advertisers' data for this purpose and has systems and controls to ensure that. It is appealing the decision.
Meta won in the United States
The other half of the record runs the other way. The Federal Trade Commission sued Meta in 2020, arguing that its purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp were meant to protect a monopoly. On November 18, 2025, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled for Meta.
According to the Associated Press, the judge wrote that to win, the FTC had to show not only that Meta once held monopoly power, but that "the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now." He concluded: "The Court's verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so." The court counted TikTok and YouTube as real competitors. Meta did not have to sell Instagram or WhatsApp.
So Meta is not an adjudicated monopolist in the United States. The FTC has appealed to the D.C. Circuit, and as reported by Shopifreaks in May 2026, it argues that it only needed to show monopoly power when the case was filed. That appeal is pending.
Keep the book, send the slip
You do not need to settle the Marketplace case to act on what it shows. Whatever data you give an ad platform sits under that platform's terms, and the platform writes the terms. The EU case is one documented example of those terms reaching further than advertisers expected. The practical answer is to decide what you send.
For a fitness, wellness or med spa brand, the richest data you have is what happens after the join: how long a member stays, what they spend, which services they add, and why they leave. That is your book. Ad platforms do not need most of it to find you new customers.
- 1Your systemsLifetime value, visit history, add-on services, cancellation reasons, notes from the front desk
- 2Your decisionsWhich offers to run, which locations to push, who gets a win-back call
- 3The platformOnly what targeting and measurement need: a conversion event, a value if you choose, a customer list for matching
- 4Your checkA monthly comparison of platform-reported results against your own joins
Say a 12-location studio brand wants Meta to find more people like its best members. It does not need to upload churn reasons or spending history. It can send a list of its best members for matching, or send conversion events that carry a value. Everything else stays in the membership system, where the brand decides who sees it.
- List what you send today
Ask whoever runs your ads: which events, customer lists and data fields go to Meta and Google from our site, our booking system and our CRM?
- Cut what targeting does not need
Remove fields that are not used for matching or measurement. Cancellation reasons, health notes and staff notes never go.
- Keep your richest data at home
Lifetime value, retention and churn reasons live in your own membership or booking system, in records you can export.
- Read the terms once a year
Meta and Google both publish their data terms for advertisers. Note what each platform says it may do with what you share.
- Reconcile monthly
Compare what the platform says it delivered with joins in your own system. Your number is the one you run the business on.
In Part 6 we covered the two U.S. rulings against Google. Next, in Part 8, we look at measurement: what it means when the platform selling the ad also reports how well it worked. For a related move on Meta, see Stop paying Meta to find your own customers.
Sources
- European Commission, "Commission fines Meta €797.72 million over abusive practices benefitting Facebook Marketplace," IP/24/5801, November 14, 2024, including the statement by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager. ec.europa.eu
- PYMNTS, "Meta to Appeal EC Decision in Facebook Marketplace Antitrust Case," November 14, 2024. pymnts.com
- PYMNTS, "Meta to Appeal Against $831 Million EU Antitrust Fine," January 29, 2025. pymnts.com
- Associated Press, Barbara Ortutay, "Meta prevails in historic FTC antitrust case, won't have to break off WhatsApp, Instagram," November 18, 2025, via ABC7. abc7news.com
- Shopifreaks, Paul Drecksler, "FTC asks D.C. Circuit appeals court to revive its monopoly case against Meta over Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions," May 27, 2026. shopifreaks.com
