(Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc. is rolling back targeted ads for European users in a bid to address European Union concerns over the company’s subscription model.
Europeans will be able to switch on “less personalized ads” while using Facebook and Instagram, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. The feature provides an alternative to paid subscriptions for users who want to limit the data the social media company harvests to deliver targeted advertising.
Meta users who opt in to the feature will receive ads based on their gender, age, location and activity on the apps within a two-hour window, the company said. It will also debut an “ad break” format, which lingers on the page and can’t be scrolled past for a few seconds.
Meta’s previous “pay or consent” model — which gave users a binary choice of paying a monthly fee or giving Meta access to their data — drew scrutiny under the bloc’s antitrust rulebook, the Digital Markets Act. Since the law’s passage, EU regulators have increasingly sought to rein in Big Tech with hefty fines that have the potential to reach 10% or more of global annual sales.
In July, the European Commission told Meta that the subscription set up was in breach of DMA’s rules on the use of personal data, and that European users should be allowed to access less personalized versions of Meta’s products. In an emailed statement, commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said that the EU’s investigation into Meta is “ongoing.”
“The new model introduced by Meta is under Meta’s sole responsibility, and it is neither endorsed by nor agreed with the commission,” Regnier said.
Meta also cut the monthly price for its ad-free subscription on the web to €5.99 a month from €9.99 and to €7.99 from €12.99 on mobile. The Wall Street Journal reported the ad changes earlier.
Meta said that the less personalized ads feature was the second major change it had made to its business model in response to EU regulatory pressure this year. “The changes we’re announcing today meet EU regulator demands and go beyond what’s required by EU law,” the company said. “While this new choice is designed to give people an additional control over their data and ad experience, it may result in ads that are less relevant to a person’s interests.”
In July, Meta announced it would not release its open-source, multi-modal AI model, Llama, due to EU regulation’s “unpredictable nature.” It followed clashes with the bloc’s watchdogs over Meta’s plans to scrape European users’ Facebook and Instagram public posts to train Llama.
(Update with European Commission comments from fifth paragraph)
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