This photo taken on April 27, 2023 in Toulouse, southwest France, shows a screen displaying the Meta logo and the European flag.
Lionel Bonaventura | AFP | Getty Images
dead Reduced the price of ad-free subscription versions of Facebook and Instagram by 40% for EU users to comply with regulatory requirements in the region.
The social media company will also offer EU users access to Facebook and Instagram for free if they agree to show ads based on a limited set of user data, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Meta originally launched an ad-free subscription service for the European Union in October 2023 due to an EU regulation aimed at cracking down on anti-competitive practices by tech companies. The subscription service also went into effect after regional regulators fined the company more than $400 million for violating data privacy laws in the European Union.
“The changes we are announcing today meet the requirements of EU regulators and go beyond what EU law requires,” Meta President Nick Clegg said Tuesday on Threads.
The company said it will reduce the price of its monthly subscription service in the European Union from €9.99 to €5.99 for desktop users and from €12.99 to €7.99 for iOS and Android users.
The company said that if EU users choose the “less personalized option” to access Facebook and Instagram for free, they will see ads that “may be less relevant to a person's interests.” For this release, Meta said it will show ads based on a “small set of data points,” including users' age, gender, location, and how they interact with ads.
In addition, EU users who choose the free option will also see non-skippable ads intended to “provide value to advertisers,” Meta said.
Strict EU regulations have affected Meta's ability to quickly launch new services in the region compared to less regulated regions such as the United States. In 2023, for example, it took nearly half a year before Meta was able to offer its Twitter-like Threads service to European users after it launched in the US that summer.
Pedro Pavone, global policy director at Meta, said that while EU regulators are making it difficult for online advertising-based companies to operate in the region, he believes the business practice of serving personalized ads represents “the foundation of the modern, free Internet.” “. It allows people to “connect with the brands and products most relevant to them in seamless, unobtrusive ways.”
“That's why I expect that even when presented with equally many options, most people will still choose our personalized advertising service,” Pavone said in a LinkedIn post.
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