UK Regulators Open an Antitrust Probe Into Meta Terms That Could Let It Feed Publishers' Content to Its AI

Britain's competition regulator wants to know whether Meta is using its size to make publishers and advertisers hand over their work. On Friday, the Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal antitrust investigation into new business terms that could let Meta access and use content from publishers' websites to build its own products, AI features included. Publishers would get no choice on whether or how that happens.

The regulator says that requiring businesses to accept those terms could "amount to an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions for thousands of UK businesses."

"Digital platforms play an important role in helping UK businesses reach millions of customers around the world," said Sarah Cardell, the CMA's chief executive. "But where a company holds a dominant position, it must not use that position to impose unfair terms."

What the regulator has to prove

The first question is whether Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, holds a dominant position in one or more UK markets. If it does, the CMA will assess whether the existing terms or any revisions amount to an abuse under Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998. The probe names Meta Platforms, Facebook UK and Facebook Ireland, and it may extend to other companies in the group.

No decision has been made, and the CMA says nobody should assume Meta broke the law. It could close the case, or it could issue a statement of objections if it provisionally finds an infringement.

Cardell said the agency had heard concerns from news publishers and other businesses and was "acting swiftly."

Meta says there is nothing to investigate

Meta rejects the premise. "There are no grounds for a competition investigation," a spokesperson said. "We've already committed not to change our terms without consulting publishers and other stakeholders. We welcome the opportunity to explain our approach to the CMA."

The company has put the rollout on hold while it talks with industry groups, and it has already edited the language once. On October 16, it removed the word "train" from the permitted uses of content collected from websites tied to business accounts, limiting those uses to "advertising and business products." Those accounts had no way to opt out. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts said at the time that the change clarified the language and that the terms were not about scraping news sites.

The European Publishers Council said it would petition EU regulators and the European Commission, and the UK's News Media Association called on the government to intervene. Danielle Coffey, chief executive of the News/Media Alliance, said the terms "cannot be allowed to be implemented."

The fight is spreading

In the wider battle, as Euronews and AFP describe it, the terms force professional users to give Meta the right to collect their content, including material behind a paywall, and use it for AI training among other things.

A Norwegian court this week temporarily banned Meta from enforcing the new terms after ten media outlets argued that they threatened their rights to their own content.

In France, the Paris Appeals Court on Thursday rejected Meta's attempt to overturn an order to negotiate in good faith with French media over neighbouring rights payments. The court found that Meta had caused "serious and immediate harm to the press sector" and had given fragmentary, opaque and unverifiable data about how it uses media content. The French regulator noted that Meta kept using the media groups' content without paying after their deals lapsed. Meta said it was "disappointed" with the ruling.

All of this lands while AI is already squeezing the sites that make content. Reddit is moving most of its site behind a login after Google's AI Mode gutted its search traffic.

The CMA's next step is quieter. Its indicative timeline has it gathering information from Meta and third parties from now until January 2027, though those dates may change.

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