CMA investigates Meta's terms for UK firms⁠.

The Competition and Markets Authority has launched an investigation into whether Meta's commercial terms for businesses using its platforms and services breach competition law¹. The terms could allow Meta to collect content from the websites of businesses and publishers that use its services, and use it to build its own products, including its AI features¹. Those businesses would get no choice on whether or how their content is used¹.

The CMA is concerned that making news publishers and other content businesses accept the terms could amount to an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions for thousands of UK businesses¹. It will assess whether Meta holds a dominant position in a relevant UK market and, if so, whether the terms abuse it¹. The concerns came from stakeholders including the News Media Association and Movement for an Open Web¹. No decision has yet been made on whether Meta has broken the law¹.

Meta had planned to bring the terms in on 30 October, then delayed them to 20 November after talks with the CMA¹. On 28 October it paused the roll out, pending a consultation with industry groups¹. A Meta spokesman said there were "no grounds for a competition investigation"². He said Meta had already committed not to change its terms without consulting publishers and other stakeholders, and welcomed the chance to explain its approach².

Sarah Cardell, the CMA's chief executive, said that where a company holds a dominant position, "it must not use that position to impose unfair terms"¹. She said the authority would be "working to reach a swift and satisfactory resolution to this case"¹. The CMA is using its Competition Act 1998 powers so that it can investigate urgently¹.

Separately, the CMA is asking Meta for information about Meta One, its new business subscription service¹. That follows concerns from the Federation of Small Businesses about the impact on small firms of posting external links on Facebook and Instagram without paying for a subscription¹. No decision has been taken on formal action there, and it sits outside this investigation¹.

Your content, their AI

This is not only a newspaper story. Any firm with a website that uses Meta's services to reach customers was being asked to accept terms that could feed its content to Meta's AI, with no way to say no. The pause means nothing changes on 20 November, and the investigation means the question is now a legal one rather than a matter of goodwill. Meta has not been found to have done anything wrong. The regulator has decided the question is serious enough to ask.

The sensible move is a short one. Find out which Meta services your business relies on, so you know what any new terms would reach when they come back. If the cost of posting links on Facebook and Instagram matters to you, the Federation of Small Businesses is already making that case to the regulator, and it is worth knowing what it has said.

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