Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is still breaching EU law, despite changes to its policy allowing users to pay to avoid ads, consumer advocates say.
Lobby group BEUC has shared its concerns with regulators including the Irish Data Protection Commission, the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network and the European Commission, regarding Meta’s refreshed pay-or-consent policy for Instagram and Facebook.
First deployed in October 2023, that policy lets users choose between having free use of the social networks, with targeted ads based on user data, or paying a monthly subscription of €9.99 for an ad-free version.
But last November Meta was forced to soften that stance in the wake of opposition from a slew of European regulators.
The European Commission said the original policy did not comply with its pro-competition law the Digital Markets Act, while EU consumer protection authorities probed whether there’d been unfair commercial practices.
Social media users could have been "misled," "confused" or "pressured" by the sudden implementation of pay-or-consent, wrote the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, the grouping of authorities responsible for enforcing relevant EU law.
In its new version, Meta introduced an option for less personalised ads, and also lowered the subscription to the ad-free service to €5.99 for web use.
It’s a choice that the company appears to have taken reluctantly: “Despite our concerted efforts to comply with EU regulation, we have continued to receive additional demands from regulators that go beyond what is written in the law,” Meta wrote when launching the new service.
“This is the second time in a year we have made significant changes to our business model in the EU to address regulatory feedback, which is testament to our commitment to complying with evolving EU regulations and offering people control over their experiences,” Meta added.
Those changes were welcomed by the European Data Protection Board, which said they offered a “less invasive” option to targeted ads.
“We welcome the fact that an important platform announces that it will offer a new choice for free with less detailed profiling for advertising,” the EU regulator’s Chair Anu Talus said last November.
BEUC, however, believes it hasn’t gone far enough.
“European consumers should not be fooled by the cosmetic changes Meta applies to its one-year-old pay-or-consent policy,” said Agustín Reyna, BEUC’s Director General.
“Facebook and Instagram users are not being presented with a fair choice,” Reyna said, adding that Meta was “making a weak bid to argue it is complying with EU law while still pushing users towards its behavioural ads system.”
Reyna called for a quick investigation by data protection authorities and the Commission.
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