According to Thurrott.com, after receiving a €200 million fine earlier this year for breaching Digital Markets Act rules, Meta has agreed to change its “pay or consent” model for Facebook and Instagram users in the EU. The European Commission announced that Meta committed to giving users a choice on personalized ads under the DMA, with new options arriving by January 2026. Specifically, users will get to choose between consenting to share all data for fully personalized ads or sharing less data for more limited ad personalization. This follows a non-compliance decision from the EU regulator in April 2024, which found that Meta’s previous offer of a free, less-personalized ad tier wasn’t sufficient. The Commission stated the case is not closed but is a “very good step forward,” and it will monitor the impact once implemented.
The Never-Ending DMA Saga
Here’s the thing: this feels like a game of regulatory whack-a-mole. Meta thought it had a clever workaround last November with its “free with less personalized ads” tier. But the EU basically said, “Nice try, but no.” The core issue is that the DMA demands genuine, straightforward choice. A binary “pay up or get tracked” model, even with a slightly diluted tracking option, doesn’t cut it. The EU wants a clear, effective separation. So Meta is going back to the drawing board… again. And let’s be real, January 2026 is a long way off. That gives Meta plenty of time to engineer this new “choice” in a way that still maximizes its ad revenue, all while the EU watches closely. It’s a high-stakes dance.
Winners, Losers, and The Ad Market
So who wins? In the short term, it’s probably privacy advocates and regulators. They’re forcing one of the world’s biggest ad machines to publicly bend the knee. But the real impact on the competitive landscape is murky. Will this make Facebook and Instagram ads in the EU less effective? Probably, for some advertisers. If a significant chunk of users opts for the “less data” tier, targeting could get fuzzier. That might theoretically benefit smaller, contextual ad networks or platforms that don’t rely on deep personalization. But I’m skeptical. Meta’s walled garden is so vast, and its first-party data so rich, that even a “limited” personalization tier might still be more powerful than what most competitors offer. The loser, as always, is Meta’s product team, which now has to build and maintain multiple complex ad delivery systems for one region.
The Bigger Picture for Big Tech
This isn’t just about ads. Look at the last line of the report: the EU is also investigating Meta’s new policy to block third-party AI chatbots like ChatGPT from WhatsApp. The message is crystal clear. The European Commission isn’t just auditing one feature at a time; it’s putting the entire “gatekeeper” business model under a microscope. Every walled garden tactic, every data linkage, every “our way or the highway” policy is now a potential violation. For other tech giants like Apple and Google, who are also under the DMA’s thumb, Meta’s ongoing headaches are a stark warning. Compliance isn’t a one-time checkbox. It’s a permanent shift in how you operate. The era of “move fast and break things” in Europe is over. Now it’s “move carefully and document everything.”
