With the Competition Board decision dated 20.10.2022 and numbered 22-48-706-299, it was decided that META complicated the activities of its competitors operating in personal social networking services and online display advertising markets and created barriers to entry by means of combining the data collected from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services and META was imposed 346 million TL administrative fines.  In addition, the Board imposed the obligations stating that META should submit which measures it would take in order to terminate the violation and establish efficient competition in the market within one month following the notification of the reasoned decision, fulfill the measures submitted in time within six months and submit an annual report for five years. As one of those obligations, the Board requested META to take again the consent of the users who had given consent for the combination of data between Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services before the obligation under the scope of the compliance measure was imposed.

The deadline given for submitting the proposals for measures in question ended on 11.12.2023. The Board discussed the proposals submitted by META in the meeting on 21.12.2023 and concluded that the compliance measures were not sufficient to meet the obligation imposed according to the decision dated 20.10.2022 and numbered 22-48-706-299 that “Submit the Authority the necessary measures for terminating the violation in question and to ensure the establishment of efficient competition in the market within one month at the latest as of the notification of the reasoned decision ”.

In its evaluation, the Board focused on the screen to be displayed when asking for a new consent from users who had given consent to data combination between Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services before the compliance measure was realized.  Within this framework, the Board considers that the compliance measure submitted by META is insufficient to solve the competitive concerns addressed in the investigation due to the following reasons:

• It is designed in a way to direct users to give consent to data combination.
• It is not sufficiently transparent.
• It does not include information that users can use the app even if they reject data combination between their accounts.
• The screen displayed to users who do not want to give consent to data combination is not as easy as the one displayed to users who want to give consent.

Therefore, with the Board decision dated 21.12.2023 and numbered 23-60/1162-417, it was decided that according to article 17(1)(a) and 17(2) of the Act no 4054, META economic unity shall be imposed administrative fines by five per ten thousand of its annual gross revenues in 2022 for each day starting from 12.12.2023 until the compliance measures that are capable of solving anticompetitive concerns in the file enter the Authority’s registry.

Afterwards, the Board discussed the compliance measures included in the petition, which was finally submitted by META on 05.04.2024, in the meeting on 24.04.2024 and considered those sufficient to terminate the violation found in the Board decision dated 20.10.2022 and numbered 22-48-706-299 and to establish efficient competition in the market.  Therefore, the administrative fine imposed to META starting from 12.12.2023 was terminated on 04.04.2024; with the decision dated 24-20/467-197, it was decided that a total of 551.557.589,86 TL administrative fines for 115 days shall be imposed. 

According to the compliance measures submitted by META, unless users combine their Facebook and Instagram accounts via “Accounts Center”, META cannot combine users’ personal data.  Users who combined their accounts before will see a new “Consent Screen” as of June. In this way, users will be able to easily separate the account/accounts they previously combined as they wish.  In addition to this option, on this screen, users will be informed in detail about which data are combined and how.  If users change their minds, they will be able to combine the data about an account or accounts via “Accounts Center”.