Dutch online marketplace OLX contributing to EU antitrust investigation into Meta

Author: Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Dutch online marketplace OLX is helping EU antitrust enforcement authorities investigate Facebook owner Meta Platforms, its Naspers unit said on Friday.

The European Commission accused Meta of gaining an unfair advantage by linking its Marketplace classifieds service to the social networking site Facebook and imposing unfair trading conditions on competing online classifieds sites.

Meta, which disputed the allegations last week at a closed hearing organized by the EU’s competition authority, said the EU’s position was baseless.

OLX said it participated in the hearing “to contribute to their (EU) investigation into Meta’s antitrust practices.”

“We welcome fair competition and will follow the progress of the Commission’s hearing with interest,” the spokeswoman said.

OLX is owned by Dutch technology investor Prosus NV, a subsidiary of South African technology investor Naspers.

Norwegian media group Schibsted also attended the EU hearing.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Louise Heavens)