Meta accused of breaking European law with its ‘pay or consent’ model
Late last year, Meta (META) launched a service called “Subscription for no ads,” allowing European users of Facebook and Instagram to pay up to €12.99 ($14) a month for ad-free versions.
The European Commission said in a statement Monday that, in its preliminary view, “this binary choice forces users to consent to the (use) of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalized but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks.”
If the provisional findings of the Commission’s investigation are confirmed, the EU could hit Meta with a fine equivalent to 10% of its global annual revenue.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Meta's decision to offer an ad-free service for its European users has sparked interest in the tech industry's business models, particularly in relation to data privacy. Despite the tech-driven innovation, concerns about user consent and personalized data usage persist.
