Meta charged with failing to comply with EU tech rules

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Meta Platforms was charged by EU antitrust regulators on Monday for failing to comply with landmark tech rules as they took aim at its newly introduced pay or consent advertising model.

The U.S. tech giant launched the no-ads subscription service for Facebook and Instagram in Europe last November, saying users who consent to be tracked get a free service which is funded by advertising revenues.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, said the binary choice breaches the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) which seeks to rein in the power of Big Tech, as it sent its preliminary finding to Meta.

It said the binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks.

“We want to empower citizens to be able to take control over their own data and choose a less personalised ads experience,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

Reuters was the first to report that the EU competition enforcer would charge Meta with non-compliance under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The charge against Meta came a week after the EU watchdog issued its first DMA charge against Apple for not complying with the new rule.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)