Meta, which was still called Facebook, announced a year ago a series of commitments to improve its practices in the online advertising sector in France. A reaction to a complaint filed by Criteo for abuse of dominant position. The Competition Authority validated the measures taken by the American giant on June 16.
The complaint against Meta dates back to 2019
In 2018, Criteo, an advertising intermediation service, had access to a specific programming interface (API) from Facebook, allowing it to improve the auctioning of advertisements, to be withdrawn. At the same time, Criteo also lost its Facebook Marketing Partner status, an asset for Criteo’s services and a kind of label for the beneficiary companies.
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The blow was violent for French society. In 2018 Facebook, along with Instagram and Messenger, represented 49% of non-search related online advertising, 50% in 2019. In the social media segment, this figure rises to 90% in 2019 and 65% taking into account Youtube.
Criteo logically filed a complaint in September 2019. A complaint deemed admissible by the Competition Authority. She felt that Facebook’s decisions lacked transparency on the criteria used to access its services, objectivity, which its sales teams had denigrated Criteo and predictability.
The French Competition Authority and Criteo satisfied
It is to remedy this unfortunate situation that Facebook has taken measures and submitted them to the Competition Authority. This last ” accepted them considering that they were likely to put an end to the competition concerns that had been described in the preliminary assessment “, explains a communicated. Henri Piffaut, vice-president of the authority, declared that ” This is the first time that Meta has offered commitments and seen them accepted by a competition authority. “.
In concrete terms, Meta has made a 3 to 5-year commitment to reintegrate AdTech companies into its various programs according to clearly stated criteria and to train its sales teams annually. All under the supervision of an independent representative with access to the necessary data.
In a press release, Ryan Damon, Criteo’s legal director, welcomed the “strong commitments” made by Meta, he believes that ” Positive results like this can ensure that big platforms like Meta collaborate with their partners and the ecosystem in open and fair competition and without self-referencing. “.