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Facebook and Instagram breach EU rules by charging users to avoid adverts, European Commission suggests
The icons of social media apps displayed on a mobile phone screen, January 3, 2018
FACEBOOK and Instagram are violating EU rules by charging users to avoid adverts, the European Commission said today.
Meta has given European users the option of paying for ad-free versions of the social media platforms since November, following a European Court of Justice ruling that users have to consent to be shown ads.
But the Commission said today that preliminary findings of an investigation into this are that a pay-or-consent model still breaches the Digital Markets Act (DMA) because users do not “freely consent” to allowing their personal data to be used to target them with ads.
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