EU hits Meta with warning over its subscription model
The European Commission’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager they want users to be able to 'take control' over their own data.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has been slapped with a warning by the European Commission over its subscription model for ad-free services on its social media sites, risking potentially heavy fines under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
On Monday, EU regulators announced that the company’s so-called pay-or-consent policy falls foul of the Act because the new model “forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data,” while not being offered a less personalised version of either Facebook and Instagram.
The European Commission’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said their “preliminary view” is that Meta’s advertising model “fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act”.
“We want to empower citizens to be able to take control over their own data and choose a less personalised ads experience.”
The DMA lays out a series of dos or don’ts for some of the world’s largest tech platforms. The EU’s move is a preliminary step but the eventual fines for breaches can be as high as 10% of global annual revenue, or 20% for repeated violations.
Meta introduced separate, ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram in November, to ward off regulatory pressure over its processing of users’ personal data.
The company said that the new model complies with the DMA and that the company looks forward “to further constructive dialog with the European Commission to bring this investigation to a close”.
Under EU rules, tech firms must seek users’ consent for combining their personal data across platform services. If a user refuses such consent, they should have access to a less personalised version.
The commission says that the likes of Meta cannot make the use of Facebook or Instagram conditional on users’ consent.
Last week, Apple was hit with a similar complaint by regulators, warning the iPhone maker that it must allow app developers to steer users to cheaper deals and offers outside of the App Store, in order to step into line with the rules.
As part of the DMA, it’s illegal for certain services operated by the likes of Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon to favour their own services over those of rivals.
They are barred from combining personal data across their different services, prohibited from using data they collect from third-party merchants to compete against them, and have to allow users to download apps from rivals’ platforms.
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