UK competition watchdog accepts Meta’s changes to ad data rules
9:03 am Tuesday, August 20th, 2024
(Reuters) -Britain’s competition watchdog said on Tuesday it has accepted Meta’s proposed changes to the way it uses the data of customers advertising on the global social media platform.
In May, Meta had pledged to limit how it uses advertising customers’ data to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage.
Under the original commitments, advertisers on Meta platforms could “opt out” of their data being used to improve Facebook Marketplace.
However, the new proposal ensures that all of the Facebook Marketplace advertisers’ data will not be used to improve the ecommerce platform, without having to opt in or out, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.
“The CMA has concluded that the revisions go above and beyond the original commitments and would not leave any advertisers worse off. As a result, the CMA has accepted the proposed variation,” it added.
The CMA, which opened the investigation in 2021, was looking into whether the platform held an unfair advantage in areas such as online classified ads and online dating, in the way it gathers and uses data.
Last year, Amazon.com committed to not using marketplace data from rival sellers to ensure an even playing field for third-party sellers.
(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; editing by Alan Barona, Kirsten Donovan)
