“We accept the statement of the European Commission,” Meta said. “Personalized advertising is vital for the European economy.”
The investigation was carried out under the EU's landmark Digital Markets Act, which is designed to combat the power of big tech giants and is among the bloc's tech rules that have drawn fierce opposition from the Trump administration.
The announcement came just days after Brussels launched an antitrust probe into Meta over its new policy on artificial intelligence providers' access to WhatsApp – a case that underscores the commission's willingness to use its powers to challenge big tech companies.
This upcoming European investigation follows the launch of recent DMA investigations into Google parent company Alphabet over its ranking of news outlets in search results, and Amazon and Microsoft over their cloud computing services.
Last week, the commission also fined Elon Musk X €120 million for violating the bloc's digital transparency rules. Sanction X drew sharp criticism from a wide range of US government officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the fine was “an attack on all American technology platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”
Andrew Puzder, the US ambassador to the EU, said the fine “is the result of EU over-regulation” and said the Trump administration opposes “censorship and will challenge onerous rules targeting US companies abroad.”
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