European Commission sends preliminary findings to Meta over its “Pay or Consent” model for breach of the Digital Markets Act

The European Commission has informed Meta of its preliminary findings that its “pay or consent” advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In the Commission's preliminary view, this binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta's social networks. The Commission takes the preliminary view that Meta's “pay or consent” advertising model is not compliant with the DMA as it does not meet the necessary requirements set out under Article 5(2). In particular, Meta's model:

• Does not allow users to opt for a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the “personalised ads” based service. 
• Does not allow users to exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of their personal data.

By sending preliminary findings, the Commission informs Meta of its preliminary view that the company is in breach of the DMA. Meta now has the possibility to exercise its rights of defence by examining the documents in the Commission's investigation file and replying in writing to the Commission's preliminary findings.