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EU signals doubts over legality of Meta’s privacy fee

The European Union has given its strongest signal yet that a controversial tactic rolled out by Meta last November to extract consent to tracking from The European Union has given its strongest signal yet that a controversial tactic rolled out by Meta last November to extract consent to tracking from regional users of Facebook and Instagram won't wash under the bloc's updated digital governance and competition rules.

The EU’s goal for the DMA is to loosen Big Tech’s grip on tipped digital markets and stamp out unfair tactics which flow from their ability to throw their weight around when it comes to imposing their own rules on other businesses and consumers. In a sign Meta may be feeling some heat about its compliance claims in this area, it emerged earlier this week that it had offered to lower the cost of its ad-free subscription in discussions with privacy regulators. The DMA introduces mandatory consent mechanisms for gatekeepers wanting to combine and cross-use personal data — across their own and third party services — which EU sources have told us implies giving end users a real choice.

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