The European Union on Monday accused the technology giant Meta (Facebook, Instagram) of violating digital privacy rules with its payment model for keeping user data confidential.
“Meta forces millions of users across the EU to a binary option: pay or consent [el uso de sus datos]“In our preliminary conclusion, this is a violation of the Digital Markets Act,” said European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton on the X network.
The system adopted by Meta to comply with the operating rules of digital platforms requires users to pay a monthly fee or accept the marketing of your data for the purposes of personalizing advertising.
In a statement, the European Commission said “this binary option forces users to accept the combination of their personal data but deprives them of a less personalized but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks”.
Meta will now have time to respond to the Commission.
However, if the Commission considers that its position on the model is confirmed, may apply a fine of up to 10% of Meta’s global revenues.
The legislation gives the Commission the power to raise the fine to 20% of global revenues in the event of repeat offences, or even order the companies to be broken up.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is one of the EU’s pillars in regulating the sector, along with the Digital Services Act.
By virtue of these two laws, the Commission determined that the largest platforms – which it calls ‘gatekeepers’ – They cannot force users to consent to the use of their data to access network services or functions.
The Commission will take a decision on whether the Meta model is compatible with LMD or not by the end of March 2025.