"Facebook collects vast troves of data on the activities of users of its social network and beyond, enabling it to target specific customer groups," said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission 's executive vice president in charge of competition policy . "We will look in detail at whether this data gives Facebook an undue competitive advantage, in particular on the online classified ads sector, where people buy and sell goods every day, and where Facebook also competes with companies from which it collects data. The feature lets users sign into other websites, apps and services with their Facebook credentials, making it a potentially big source of information on users' interests. tech giants already faced intensifying scrutiny in Europe over their business practices. Officials in Brussels have charged Apple with stifling competition in music streaming, accused Amazon of using data from independent merchants to unfairly compete against them with its own products, and are informally investigating Google's data practices for advertising purposes.

Source: Economic Times June 04, 2021 15:56 UTC