Meta will only introduce limited changes to its ad model under ongoing DMA probe

On Friday the Commission said Meta will introduce only limited changes to the pay or consent advertising model it rolled out in November 2024, after it was slapped with a €200 million Digital Markets Act (DMA) fine in April. 

The EU's executive has been investigating Meta's switch to offering users a choice between paying the company to access ad-free versions of Facebook/Instagram or agreeing to be tracked for ads. The Commission is probing this issue because the DMA requires gatekeepers like Meta to obtain affirmative consent to such tracking.

The deadline for Meta to comply with the Commission's DMA decision elapsed yesterday. However Commission spokesperson, Thomas Regnier, could not confirm whether changes Meta made to the ad model last year are sufficient to comply with the April decision in which Meta was slapped with its first DMA sanction.

He added that the Commission will consider its next steps - reiterating that Meta risks daily fines from 27 June if it continues to be non-compliant.

On Friday Meta told Euractiv it recently made changes to the wording and design flow that people see when being asked to choose how to access its apps. But did not provide further detail.

Pay or see less personalised ads

The EU's DMA investigation on Meta began back in March 2024, but in November 2024 Meta tweaked its pay or consent offer - saying users would now be able to choose between paying it a fee to access ad-free versions of its apps or gaining free access to an ad-supported version in which the ads would use less personal data for targeting.

At the same time, it also reduced the fee for the ad-free option -- dropping the charge by 40%. This brought the price of monthly subscriptions for the no-ad versions of Facebook and Instagram down to €7.99 each per month.

In April the Commission decided that the original version of Meta's pay or consent model, which offered a more expensive, binary choice to users, did not comply with the DMA.

On Friday a Meta spokesperson accused the Commission of moving the goalposts on compliance, claiming the EU is unfairly singling out its business model for sanction.

"The European Commission continues to discriminate against an American company’s business model," they said.

"A user choice between a subscription for a no-ads service or a free ad-supported service remains a legitimate business model for every company in Europe - except Meta," the spokesperson added. 

Meta's spokesperson also claimed the company has "engaged constructively with the European Commission and introduced extensive changes to address [the Commission's] ever-changing feedback".

(nl)