Meta has just been slapped with a hefty fine of nearly €800 million ($840 million for those of us across the pond), and it's all because of how they've been handling their Marketplace.

You might be thinking, “What's the big deal? It's just a place to sell old furniture and vintage tees, right?”

Not quite, according to the European Commission.

The EU's competition watchdog has decided that Meta was playing a bit too fast and loose by tying its Marketplace to the main social network, Facebook. 

Essentially, every time you logged onto your feed to see what your high school friends are up to now, you were also getting a dose of Marketplace, whether you wanted it or not. 

Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner, put it this way: Meta was using its dominance in social networking to give Marketplace an unfair advantage. 
 
Meta, of course, is pushing back. They're insisting that people use Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to. But the EU's stance is clear: Meta can't leverage its social media dominance to give its own services an edge without a fair fight.

The fine is part of a broader trend where big tech is getting a taste of regulatory action in Europe. 

What's next for Meta? They've said they'll appeal, which isn't surprising given the sum.