Facebook owner Meta reached out to EU antitrust regulators some time back in an attempt to settle investigations into its use of customer data and the tying of its classified advertisements service to its social network, people with direct knowledge said.
There were very preliminary discussions which so far have not made any progress, the people said.
Related: EU Will Facebook With New Antitrust Charges: Politico
“I am not surprised that there is no traction. You can better assess the exposure risk if you see something in writing like a statement of objections,” said Tobias Caspary, a partner at London-based Fried Frank.
The EU competition enforcer launched an investigation into Facebook in June last year, focusing on whether the social network unfairly use advertisers’ data to compete with them in the online classified ads sector.