Meta proposes to almost halve EU ad-free Facebook, Instagram monthly fees

Meta Platforms has proposed lowering monthly subscription fees for Facebook and Instagram to €5.99 (roughly Rs. 540) from €9.99 (roughly Rs. 900), a senior Meta executive said on Tuesday, in a move aimed at addressing privacy concerns and antitrust regulators.

The price cut follows growing criticism from privacy activists and consumer groups of Meta’s ad-free subscription service in Europe, which critics say requires users to pay to ensure their privacy.

Meta launched the service in November to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which restricted its ability to serve personalized ads to users without their consent, hurting its main source of revenue. .

The company said the charging model is designed to balance the conflicting requirements of EU privacy law and the DMA.

Meta lawyers said: “We have been wanting to speed up this process for some time because we need to reach a stable state… Therefore, we propose to reduce the price for a single account from 9.99 to 5.99 and for any other account from 4 euros .” Tim Lamb said at the European Commission hearing.

“This is by far the lowest price any reasonable person has ever paid for a service of this quality. I think it is a serious proposition. Regulatory uncertainty currently exists and needs to be resolved quickly.”

Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems said the issue had nothing to do with fees.

“We know from all the research that even a fee of €1.99 or less can lead to a shift in consent rates from 3-10% of people who actually want the ad to 99.9% of people who still click ‘yes’. GDPR requirements must Consent is given ‘freely’,” he said, referring to EU privacy legislation.

“In fact, it’s not about the amount of money – it’s about the whole ‘pay or agree’ approach. The whole purpose of ‘pay or agree’ is to get users to click ‘agree’ even if it’s not their intention.” Liberty and Real choice. We believe that merely changing the amount does not make this practice legal. “

The one-day hearing is intended to give Meta’s users and third parties an opportunity to clarify how it complies with the DMA.

Meta made a lowered offer to regulators earlier this year and is currently in talks with data protection authorities, particularly the Irish regulator.

Users who agree to be tracked will receive a free service funded by advertising revenue.

Companies that violate the DMA face fines of up to 10% of their global annual turnover.

© Thomson Reuters 2024