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The CMA concluded that Meta’s revisions go ‘above and beyond’ original commitments made in May and would not leave any advertisers worse off.
The UK’s competition regulator has accepted revised proposals from Facebook parent Meta on the way it uses the data of its advertising customers to allay competition concerns.
Under original commitments made in May, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that Meta had pledged to limit how it uses its advertising customers’ data by allowing competitors of Facebook Marketplace that advertised on Meta platforms to opt out of their data being used to improve the service. The idea was to prevent Facebook Marketplace from gaining an unfair advantage in the market.
In an announcement published today (20 August), the CMA said that it consulted advertisers and Facebook Marketplace users on the proposals and concluded that the revisions go “above and beyond” the original commitments and would not leave any advertisers “worse off”.
“The varied commitments give Meta an additional way to implement the data controls set up in the original commitments,” the CMA statement reads.
“Meta currently plans to adopt this new approach meaning that all advertisers can retain the ability to place advertisements on Facebook Marketplace and be certain of their advertising data not being used to improve Facebook Marketplace, without having to opt in or out.”
As a result, the CMA has accepted Meta’s new proposals, three years after it opened its original investigation. “The other terms of the commitments not affected by the variation continue to remain in place,” the regulator added.
In its most recent earnings call, Meta reported that its revenue for the quarter ended 30 June stood at more than $39bn, which represents a 22pc increase over the same quarter last year. It made around $36.4bn in the previous quarter ended 31 March.
Meanwhile, Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ business model came under EU scrutiny last month. Under this model, EU users of Meta apps Instagram and Facebook have to choose between using the apps for free with personalised ads enabled or sign up to a monthly subscription for an uninterrupted and privacy-friendly experience.
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