EC, UK Probing Facebook Over Antitrust

The European Commission and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority are investigating Facebook's use of advertising data, they said Friday. The EC launched an antitrust probe to determine whether Facebook violated EU competition law by using data gathered from advertisers to compete with them in markets where it's active, such as classified ad services. The CMA said it's considering whether the company gained an unfair advantage over rivals in providing services for online classified advertisements and online dating through its methods for gathering and using data. The competition bodies said they will "seek to work closely" together. Facebook said it will "continue to cooperate fully with the investigations to demonstrate that they are without merit."