Meta to Offer New Ad Preferences in the EU to Comply With the DMA

After receiving a €200 million fine for breaching Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules earlier this year, Meta has agreed to tweak its “pay or consent” advertising model for Facebook and Instagram users in the EU. The EU Commission said today that Meta committed to giving EU users a choice on personalized ads under the DMA, with new options coming in January 2026.

“Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising,” the EU Commission announced today. Once implemented, the Commission will seek feedback and evidence from Meta and other relevant stakeholders on the impact and uptake of this new ad model.”

Back in November 2024, Meta already agreed to offer EU users a new option to use Facebook and Instagram for free with less personalized ads as an alternative to paying for its ad-free subscription. However, that wasn’t enough to appease the EU regulator, which still issued Meta a DMA non-compliance decision related to user choice in April of this year.

While we don’t know in detail the upcoming changes to Meta’s “pay or consent” advertising model in the EU, the EU Commission said in a statement shared with the Financial Times that “the case is not closed, but it is a very good step forward and we will now monitor it from here.” Last week, the EU regulator also announced that it was investigating Meta’s new policy regarding third-party AI chatbots in WhatsApp which will soon prohibit ChatGPT, Copilot, and other AI providers from communicating with WhatsApp users.