UK competition watchdog investigates Meta's content terms

The UK Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal investigation on October 30, 2026 into whether Meta Platforms, Inc., Facebook UK Limited and Facebook Ireland Limited are abusing a dominant position by requiring businesses to accept commercial terms that would let Meta collect content from their websites and use it to develop and provide its own products and services, including its AI features.

The CMA said in a press release that it is using its powers under Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998, which prohibits conduct by an undertaking that amounts to an abuse of a dominant position in a market and may affect trade within the United Kingdom. Its case page states that the investigation will assess whether Meta holds a dominant position in one or more relevant markets in the UK and, if so, whether its existing commercial terms, or revisions to those terms, amount to an abuse of that position.

The CMA said it is concerned that requiring news publishers and other content businesses to accept the terms could amount to an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions for thousands of UK businesses that rely on Meta's services to reach customers and audiences. The authority said it was acting on concerns it heard from stakeholders including the News Media Association and Movement for an Open Web.

Meta planned to revise its commercial terms on November 20 but has since put the changes on hold, according to the CMA. The terms would allow Meta to access and use content from publishers' websites to develop and provide its own products and services, including its AI features, without those businesses getting a choice on if or how their content is used. Meta originally planned the changes for October 30, delayed implementation until November 20 after engagement with the CMA, and announced on October 28 that the roll out would pause pending a consultation with industry groups. Its existing terms remain in place.

The proposal drew objections because acceptance came through continued use of Meta's platforms, with no way to opt out except to stop using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, the Publishers Association said in a statement welcoming the investigation. The PPA said Meta has said publishers can still signal their preferences with robots.txt, but that the assurance does not appear in the terms, which name the permitted purpose as developing Meta's "advertising and business products."

Meta has already changed the wording of the terms once. The Verge reported that the word "train" was removed, according to PPC Land, which said on October 18 that the training clause was still in Meta's UK English preview.

A Meta spokesperson said "we've already committed not to change our terms without consulting publishers and other stakeholders" and that the company welcomes the opportunity to explain its approach to the CMA, Euronews reported.

The CMA said no decision has been made on whether Meta has broken competition law. Following its initial information gathering, it may close the investigation if it decides not to proceed, or, if it provisionally considers that the law has been infringed, it may issue a statement of objections setting out its concerns and give the parties an opportunity to respond before a final decision, according to the case page.

The authority is proceeding under the Competition Act because it has limited powers under the digital markets regime for businesses that have not been designated with strategic market status, and Meta has not been designated, according to its press release. The CMA said it keeps potential candidates for strategic market status designation under active review, with the next set of proposals due before the CMA Board in spring 2027.

Elsewhere the same week, a Norwegian court temporarily banned Meta from enforcing new user terms after ten media outlets argued they threatened their content rights, and a French appeals court rejected Meta's attempt to overturn an order to negotiate in good faith with French media over rights payments, both Euronews reported.

UK trade bodies pressed their case in parallel. The News Media Association wrote to ministers on October 27 asking for public backing of the CMA, saying Meta's terms could force publishers to choose between allowing Meta to scrape their sites for AI or losing access to audiences on Facebook, InPublishing reported. The PPA asked the CMA to keep the terms unenforced while it investigates and to consider a strategic market status investigation under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

For businesses that advertise or publish video through Meta's tools, the same terms apply, and they are one of the documents that decide whether a company's site content can feed Meta's AI products. PPC Land reported that a finding that any part of Meta's business terms is an unfair trading condition would bear on the contract behind its UK advertising business, not only on the crawling clause.

The CMA's indicative timetable runs rapid initial information gathering and engagement with Meta and third parties from October 2026 to January 2027, and updates will appear on its case page.