Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened a probe into Meta’s commercial terms, amid concerns the rules could disadvantage publishers and other content businesses that rely on its platforms.
The CMA said it will examine concerns that the terms could harm news publishers and other content businesses. The investigation is not a finding that Meta breached competition law.
The Movement for an Open Web (MOW) said it lodged complaints with the CMA and European Commission on Oct. 23, urging Britain’s regulator to intervene temporarily. The group said it invoked Section 18(2)(a) of the Competition Act 1998 in its request. It asked the CMA to block the proposed terms while it reviewed the complaint.
MOW says the rules would allow Meta to crawl sites run by firms that use its services. In the group’s view, those firms could not bar the crawler and remain on Meta’s platforms. MOW also argues the company could turn crawled material into AI offerings that compete with the businesses supplying the content.
The Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association said an Oslo District Court ruling on Oct. 28 barred Meta from putting the terms into effect before a final decision on their legality; EconoTimes previously covered that court pause.
Meta has disputed MOW’s interpretation. Reuters reported Oct. 22 that a Meta spokesperson said website operators could use robots.txt to communicate their preferences. The spokesperson also said the terms apply to advertising and business products and do not change Meta’s crawler practices.
A separate CMA review of Meta’s use of advertising data began in June 2021 and closed in November 2023 after Meta accepted commitments. The agency ended that case without deciding whether competition law had been infringed.
Reuters reported Oct. 23 that Meta moved the proposed effective date from Oct. 30 to Nov. 20, a change covered in EconoTimes’ earlier report on the delay. On Oct. 28, Meta Vice President of Communications Andy Stone wrote on X that consultation with industry could continue beyond Nov. 20. “Until then our existing terms remain in place,” Stone wrote.
