Meta Platforms faces scrutiny in Britain over two sides of its relationship with businesses: proposed terms that could let it collect content from their websites and subscription features that may require some of those businesses to pay to direct audiences back to their own sites.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal investigation on Friday into whether Meta’s commercial terms impose unfair conditions on publishers, advertisers, and other businesses. Separately, the regulator is seeking information about restrictions on external links under Meta’s subscription service.
Meta’s Meta One business subscriptions start at $14.99 monthly, while its Advanced plan starts at $49.99 and includes features for posting external links in organic posts and Reels.
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Pricing, availability, and posting permissions vary by account and region. Not every business is required to subscribe to share links.
The CMA said the Federation of Small Businesses had raised concerns about the potential impact of requiring businesses to pay subscriptions to post external links on Facebook and Instagram.
This also raises a question extending beyond news publishers. Businesses use Meta’s platforms to reach customers and generate traffic to websites they independently operate.
Meanwhile, Meta’s disputed commercial terms could give the company permission to collect material from those external websites for its own services, including AI-related products, according to the regulator.
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Nieman Journalism Lab first reported the provisions on October 15. Meta subsequently removed explicit training language, delayed implementation until November 20, and paused the rollout on October 28 following publisher objections.
Meta maintains that the revisions do not override publishers’ existing website-crawling preferences.
However, the CMA’s formal case notice explicitly includes both existing commercial terms and proposed revisions. Suspending the changes therefore does not remove the existing contractual arrangements from regulatory examination.
“There are no grounds for a competition investigation,” a company spokesperson said, adding that Meta had committed to consulting publishers before changing its terms.
The CMA must establish whether Meta holds a dominant position in a relevant UK market and whether its commercial conditions constitute an abuse of that position.
The investigation covers Meta Platforms, Facebook UK, and Facebook Ireland. Initial evidence gathering and engagement with affected businesses are scheduled to run through January 2027.
