Meta proposes ad-light option for EU users amid DMA scrutiny

Meta has proposed an ad‑light choice for users in the European Union as it responds to scrutiny from the bloc’s regulators, the company said. “We acknowledge the European Commission’s statement,” Meta added. Meta argued that “Personalized ads are vital for Europe’s economy,” framing the move in the context of rules that govern how tech firms operate in the EU.

The investigation took place under the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act, which is designed to tackle the power of Big Tech giants and is among the bloc’s tech regulations that have drawn fierce pushback from the Trump administration. The announcement comes only days after Brussels launched an antitrust investigation into Meta over its new policy on artificial intelligence providers’ access to WhatsApp, a case the report said underlines the commission’s readiness to use its powers.

That upcoming probe follows recent DMA investigations into Alphabet over its ranking of news outlets in search results and into Amazon and Microsoft over their cloud computing services. Last week the commission also fined Elon Musk’s X 120 million euros for breaking the bloc’s digital transparency rules.

Key Topics

Tech, Meta, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Whatsapp, Alphabet