Publishers, advertisers call EU, UK antitrust regulators to suspend Meta's new commercial terms
META•Digital advertisers and publishers asked EU and UK regulators to suspend Meta's new commercial terms, set to take effect October 30, arguing they could let Meta use their content for AI services. Meta said the terms apply to its ads and business products and do not change its use of web crawlers.
1. Regulators asked to intervene
The Movement for an Open Web said it complained to the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and requested interim measures against Meta's new commercial terms, which take effect October 30. The group said the terms could require businesses to grant Meta rights to their digital content without an opt-out.
2. Meta disputes complaint
Meta said the consolidated crawling terms apply only to its ads and business products and do not change how it uses web crawlers. A spokesperson said content owners can use robots.txt to signal preferences, and the updates do not grant Meta new rights that override them.
3. UK agency in discussions
The CMA said it met with Meta to seek details and was in urgent discussions as it considered next steps. Companies seeking interim measures must show they would suffer serious and irreparable damage from the alleged anti-competitive practices. Similar complaints were raised by the European Publishers Council and two German publishing associations.
