UK Accepts Meta’s Proposal in Antitrust Case

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has accepted Meta’s updated proposal to change how it uses advertising data within Facebook Marketplace.

Meta will implement a new data control that lets advertisers placing ads on Facebook choose whether Facebook uses their data to improve Facebook Marketplace.

Meta has already implemented an option that lets advertisers “opt out” of sharing their data for this purpose. However, this change gives advertisers a clear choice upfront to share their data or not without needing to opt out later.

The CMA has accepted this new proposal, saying that “the revisions go above and beyond the original commitments and would not leave any advertisers worse off.”

This outcome follows an investigation that began in June 2021. The CMA was trying to determine whether Meta’s practices of collecting and using advertisers’ data to improve its advertising services gave it a “competitive advantage over downstream competitors.”

Meta originally collected data via its advertising services to help businesses better target Facebook users. In addition, the CMA investigated whether Facebook gained a competitive advantage in advertising when users chose to use Meta’s single sign-on capability, which allows users to log into external sites with their Facebook accounts.

The CMA investigated whether Facebook used this data and its dominant position, particularly relative to its Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Dating services, to gain an unfair advantage.

However, the investigation did not conclude with a formal opinion by the CMA. After initial investigations and conversations with Meta, the CMA first accepted Meta’s proposal to offer an opt-out option in November 2023 and appointed a Monitoring Trustee and Technical Expert to ensure follow-through.

Meta submitted this updated proposal in May, and the CMA has now approved it. The case will remain open to monitor the implementation of the agreed changes.