The Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s competition regulator, has accepted Meta’s proposed changes to how it uses advertising customers’ data.
In June 2021, the CMA launched an investigation into how Meta (then Facebook) used the data it collected from its advertising and single sign-on services. The regulator was trying to establish whether the company had used the data unfairly to gain a competitive advantage, particularly in the areas of “online classified ads and online dating” (Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Dating).
In May 2023, Meta offered commitments not to use competitors’ advertising data for Facebook Marketplace; to restrict the use of ad data for the development of other products; and to give advertisers the ability to opt out of their data being used to improve Marketplace altogether.
Meta tweaked the commitments slightly over time, but this actually made them more robust; the new commitments, accepted by the CMA, give Meta an additional way to implement the data controls it originally offered, meaning an opt-in or opt-out isn’t necessary.
The regulator said it had “concluded that the revisions go above and beyond the original commitments and would not leave any advertisers worse off. As a result, the CMA has accepted the proposed variation.”
Tech giants have been under regulatory scrutiny in the advertising space for some time. Regulators and the wider advertising sector are afraid they can distort the market by using the massive amounts of data they collect to gain an unfair advantage.
Meta is only the latest to be forced to make concessions. Last year, the UK and EU won similar commitments from Amazon, where it swore not use rival sellers’ marketplace data to gain an unfair advantage.
Google, however, remains under uncommitted. The EU has even considered forcing the firm to break up its adtech empire.
Earlier this year, Google was forced to face a £13.6 billion lawsuit, brought by Ad Tech Collective Action in 2022, which accuses the firm of favouring its own advertising services.
Wanda Parisien is a computing expert who navigates the vast landscape of hardware and software. With a focus on computer technology, software development, and industry trends, Wanda delivers informative content, tutorials, and analyses to keep readers updated on the latest in the world of computing.
