Türkiye competition authority fines Meta 4.8 million lira a day for failing to provide documents

The Turkish Competition Board announced on Wednesday that it decided to fine Meta Platforms Inc. 4.8 million lira ($160,000) a day for failing to provide sufficient documentation as part of a previous antitrust investigation in 2022.

On January 11, 2021, the Turkish Competition Board opened an investigation against Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.), Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. (formerly Facebook Ireland Ltd.), WhatsApp Inc. and WhatsApp LLC, over WhatsApp’s sharing of user data with Facebook. The board sought to determine whether Meta violated of Article 6 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition.

The board made a decision on October 20, 2022, finding that:

1. Meta was in a dominant position in the markets for personal social network services, consumer communication services and online display advertising; and
2. Meta had distorted competition by complicating the activities of its competitors and creating barriers to entry by combining data collected from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services in violation of Turkey’s Competition Act.

Meta was fined 346.7 million lira for the violations and ordered to submit measures to terminate the violations within 1 month of the decision and to implement the measures within 6 months. It is also required to file an annual report periodically to the board for a 5-year period following the implementation of the corrective measures.

Meta received the decision on September 9, 2023, and submitted a request to extend the deadline for filing the measures until December 19, 2023, which was accepted by the board. Meta submitted the intended measures within the extended deadline, but the board found the measures. Having considered the extended deadline of submission and Meta’s annual gross revenues in 2022, the board decided to impose a fine of 4.8 million lira per day until the final compliance remedy is registered.

Meta said that they did not agree with the Turkish Competition Authority’s findings “but will continue to constructively cooperate with the Turkish Competition Authority to resolve the matter without delay.”

Notably, the Turkish Competition Authority opened another investigation against Meta on December 12, 2023, regarding its tying of Threads with Instagram for a potential Article 6 violation.