Meta's Invite-Only Ad Access Rules: French Antitrust Watchdog Calls for Transparency and Fairness

France's antitrust watchdog on Thursday gave Facebook-owner Meta Platforms, Inc META two months to change its access rules for ad verification partners for allegedly exploiting its influence in online advertising.
Meta's invite-only approach allowed access to its data to only the biggest operators, the watchdog alleged.
The competition authority urged Meta to publish new access criteria for partners, which must be transparent, objective, non-discriminatory, and proportionate, Reuters reports.
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Ad verification companies offer services including measuring how many views online ads receive, detecting fraudulent online traffic, and ensuring client ads do not appear on websites harming their brand.
Adloox, a small, independent French ad verification company, brought the case against Meta in 2022 after failing to gain access to Meta's data for these services from 2016 - 2022.
The French watchdog found that Meta's barrier to entry constituted an "immediate and grave" harm to Adloox precisely and to the independent ad verification sector as a whole.
Price Action: META shares traded lower by 0.54% at $235.73 on the last check Thursday.