(Bloomberg/Shona Ghosh and Gian Volpicelli) — Meta Platforms Inc. will soon offer paid versions of Facebook and Instagram in the UK that will remove advertising from both platforms.
In the coming weeks, users will be given the choice to pay £2.99 ($4) a month to access ad-free versions of either service on the web, or £3.99 for the iOS or Android apps. Meta said it was charging more for access on apps because of subscription fees levied by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google on their respective app stores.
The rollout comes as Meta continues to try and tread the line between Europe’s strict approach to online privacy and growing sales generated from advertising, which accounted for 97% of its revenue last year. Meta will begin notifying users over the age of 18 that they can subscribe to Facebook or Instagram without seeing ads, the company said. They will still have the option to keep using the services for free with ads, it said.
The company released a more expensive version of its subscription-fee offering in the EU in 2023, but was slapped with a €200 million ($232 million) fine in April after regulators argued the model still breached the bloc’s digital antitrust rules and didn’t offer users a genuine free choice. Meta tweaked the system to bring it in line with EU regulation, but in July the European Commission asked for further changes, implying that the company might face daily fines if the overhaul is deemed insufficient.
Since quitting the European Union, the UK has been freer to take a softer approach to internet privacy and appears to have green-lit the rollout in the UK. Meta said it had had extensive discussions with the UK’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
“This approach and outcome sets the UK apart from the EU, where we have been engaged in similar discussions with regulators,” the company said in a statement. “EU regulators continue to overreach by requiring us to provide a less personalized ads experience that goes beyond what the law requires, creating a worse experience for users and businesses.”
The ICO said on Friday it “welcomed” the new model.
“This moves Meta away from targeting users with ads as part of the standard terms and conditions for using its Facebook and Instagram services, which we’ve been clear is not in line with UK law,” a spokesperson said.
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