Turkish Authorities Fine Meta $160,000 Daily

On Wednesday, the Turkish Competition Authority announced its decision to impose a daily fine of 4.8 million Turkish lira ($160,000) on Meta Platforms Inc., the parent organization of Facebook.

This penalty stems from Meta’s inability to supply adequate documentation during a prior investigation into the online video advertising market in 2022.

It’s worth noting that in October 2022, the Turkish Competition Board had imposed a fine of 346.72 million liras ($18.63 million) on Meta for breaching competition law by accumulating and integrating data from its three social media applications: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The regulatory body observed that this data merging allowed the company to maintain a dominant position in personal social networking services, consumer communication services, and online video advertising markets. Consequently, this made it challenging for competitors to function in online display advertising markets alongside personal social networking services and erected barriers to market entry.

Meta was instructed to present a document detailing the compliance measures necessary to cease its legal violations and reestablish competition in the online video advertising sector.

Nevertheless, the company failed to offer adequate documentation concerning Meta’s compliance efforts. As a result, the Turkish competition board imposed a fresh fine of 4.8 million lira ($160,160.16) per day starting December 12, 2023, until Meta submits an ultimate compliance solution to the board.

Moreover, the board has granted Meta one month to “submit the required measures” and six months to implement them. The tech behemoth must also submit annual reports to the board for the next five years.

A spokesperson for Meta commented, “We disagree with the findings of the Turkish Competition Authority but will persist in working cooperatively with them to resolve this matter promptly.”