The EU and the UK have both announced formal competition investigations into Facebook, focusing on whether the social-media platform used data gathered from advertisers to compete with them in markets where Facebook itself is active.

The European Commission’s probe will also assess whether Facebook ties its online classified-ads service, Facebook Marketplace, to its social network, in breach of EU competition rules — specifically articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced a similar investigation, which will include an assessment of whether Facebook’s dating-profile service Facebook Dating has benefited from breaches of competition rules.

Commercially valuable data

The commission has concerns because companies which compete directly with Facebook may provide it with commercially valuable data when they advertise their services on the platform.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager (pictured), who is in charge of competition policy, said that almost seven million firms advertised on Facebook.

She said the commission would look at whether the data collected from Facebook users gave the company an undue competitive advantage, particularly in the online classified-ads sector.

The commission and the CMA have said that they will “seek to work closely” as the independent investigations proceed.