There’s an old saying “if you don’t pay for the product, then you are the product” and Meta is now offering users in Europe more control over their data without ad targeting on Facebook and Instagram in exchange for a monthly fee.
Facebook and Instagram users in the EU, EEA and Switzerland can now pay €9.99 per month for web and €12.99 /month on iOS and Android ensuring them an ad-free experience on social media platforms. These monthly fees will cover all linked Facebook and Instagram accounts owned by a single user until March 1, 2024. After that, the ad-free experience on each additional linked account will cost an additional €6/month on the web and €8/month. month on iOS and Android. The ad-supported experience will still be available to users on both platforms.
The ability for people to purchase an ad-free subscription balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice and allowing Meta to continue to serve all people in the EU, EEA and Switzerland. In its ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) expressly recognized that a subscription model, such as the one we are announcing, is a valid form of consent for an advertising-funded service.
Meta’s press release talks about its commitment to keeping its users’ information secure and in line with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA came into force in May and considers Facebook a gatekeeper, i.e. a large digital platform providing key services in the social network category, forcing Meta to comply with the obligations and prohibitions of the regulation by March 6, 2024. The list of prohibitions of the DMA includes a ban on combining data collected by two different services belonging to the same company and on tracking users outside of their platform’s main service.
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