The European Commission (EC) announced that agreement Monday (Dec. 8), six months after fining the tech giant over its “consent or pay” model that allows ad-free services for a fee.
Now, Meta will offer users in the European Union (EU) an alternative choice of Facebook and Instagram services that would show them less personalized ads, in keeping with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
“This is the first time that such a choice is offered on Meta’s social networks,” the commission said in its announcement.
“Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalized advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalized advertising. Meta will present these new options to users in the EU in January 2026.”
The EC said it had been in “close dialogue” with Meta after issuing the 200 million euro ($232 million) fine in April. The commission announced in July that Meta still needed to do more work to bring its model into compliance with the DMA.
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Once the new program is implemented, the EC said it will seek feedback and evidence from meta and other stakeholders on the impact and uptake of the new model.
“Users in the EU must have full and effective choice, which is their right under the DMA,” the commission added.
“We acknowledge the European Commission’s statement,” a Meta spokesperson told PYMNTS. “Personalized ads are vital for Europe’s economy—last year, Meta’s ads were linked to €213 billion in economic activity and supported 1.44 million jobs across the EU.”
The news comes days after the EC launched an investigation into Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) enhancement to WhatsApp. This came after Meta instituted a policy that prohibits AI providers from using a tool allowing businesses to communicate with customers using WhatsApp, the “WhatsApp Business Solution,” when AI is the primary service offered.
“The commission is concerned that such new policy may prevent third party AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in the European Economic Area,” the EC said.
A spokesperson for WhatsApp told PYMNTS the claims behind the planned investigation are “baseless.”
“The emergence of AI chatbots on our Business API puts a strain on our systems that they were not designed to support,” the company said. “Even still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations and operating systems.”
