UK competition regulator opens inquiry into Meta’s content-use terms

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation on 30 October 2026 into whether Meta’s proposed commercial terms could unlawfully impose unfair trading conditions on publishers and advertisers. The regulator said Meta had put the changes on hold after planning to introduce them on November 20, 2026.

The CMA said the terms could let Meta collect publishers’ website content to develop and provide its own services, including superintelligence (SI) features, without businesses choosing whether or how their content is used. Reuters, in a report published by CNA, carried the regulator’s account. Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Which websites and content rights are affected

The proposal concerns websites associated with business accounts on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, Digiday said in its October 26, 2026 report.

In an October 22, 2026 statement, publisher group PPA said the existing commercial terms, dated March 2024, contain no crawling clause—a provision allowing automated collection of website content. The proposal offers no partial opt-out: businesses rejecting it would have to stop using Meta’s commercial products, while continued use after implementation would count as acceptance.

Meta previously said the update consolidates advertiser and business terms to reduce overlap and does not change how it crawls content. Content owners could continue using robots.txt files to signal their preferences to automated web crawlers.

The PPA said neither the proposed Commercial Terms nor the Self-Serve Ad Terms mention robots.txt. It cited legal experts’ concerns that the wording could let Meta argue that contractual permissions override instructions blocking collection.

Revisions, publisher objections and postponement

Meta removed the word “train” from the proposed terms on 16 October 2026 and limited their stated use of collected content to advertising and business products. Publishers said those revisions did not resolve their concerns.

Publisher trade bodies sent letters opposing the terms on October 22, 2026. The News/Media Alliance, representing more than 2,000 publishers, asked Meta to withdraw them before their original October 30 effective date. The group argued that publishers could face a choice between letting Meta use their content without permission or compensation and losing access to its audience.

Before the subsequent hold, Meta postponed the Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms from October 30 to November 20, 2026. The company said it wanted more time to explain the changes to partners and stakeholders.

What the investigation will decide

The CMA will first determine whether Meta holds a dominant position in a relevant UK market. If it does, the regulator will assess whether the proposed terms abuse that position. Neither dominance nor abuse is a finding at this stage.

The PPA said it was consulting members about the effects on their businesses and would continue scrutinising the plans and engaging with Meta.