2023-11-30 17:44:37
Pay around ten euros per month or be targeted by targeted advertising? This is the option that the Meta group has been offering, since the beginning of November, to European users of its social networks Facebook and Instagram. The digital giant hoped to thus comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires the informed consent of the user to be able to capture their data for advertising purposes.
But this choice between a paid subscription and a free offer authorizing targeted advertising, consumer defense associations from 19 European countries find it “unfair”. The European Bureau of Consumer Unions (Beuc), which brings them together, filed a complaint to this effect on Thursday November 30 with the European Union.
€20.99 per month for both applications
Among the actors represented is the UFC-Que Choisir, which has taken action in France to combat fraud (DGCCRF). The association recalls in a communiqué that, on European soil, it must be “as easy to refuse as to accept” the processing of their personal data.
“However, rather than offering an informed choice, Meta conditions the refusal to give consent on a paid subscription”indicates the UFC-Que Choisir press release. “Thus, users refusing to be tracked must take out a subscription starting at €9.99 per month, and which will soon reach up to €20.99 per month (for both applications, Editor’s note). »
A cost already judged “unacceptable » by Noyb, an Austrian association, which announced a complaint on similar grounds two days earlier, on November 28. For Noyb, the subscription is “the antithesis of free consent”. “It is simply lamentable that Meta continues to ignore European law”according to jurist Max Schrems, founder of this association.
A “hasty” choice?
In its complaint of November 30, Beuc also deplores that consumers can no longer use Facebook or Instagram until they have made their choice. A practice judged « agressive »especially since these two giants largely dominate the sector (they have 144 million and 133 million users respectively in Europe excluding the United Kingdom). “By creating a sense of urgency, Meta pushes consumers to make a hasty choice”believe the complainants.
Another argument put forward by Beuc: consumers who have opted for the paid subscription undoubtedly believe they are less exposed to tracking and profiling. Except that, “in truth, users are likely to have their data collected and used, but for purposes other than advertising”.
40 billion in profits last year
At the beginning of November, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) formally prohibited Meta from using the personal data of its users for advertising purposes without their explicit consent. A hard blow for the group, whose economic model depends entirely on very lucrative targeted advertising. Advertising revenue enabled it to generate more than 40 billion dollars (36.6 billion euros) in profits last year.
Meta then imagined this new paid offer, still being evaluated by the Irish regulator on behalf of the European Union (because the group’s European headquarters is in Dublin). This authority will then have to decide between the reasoning of Meta and that of the consumer associations: is the consent given by those who refuse to pay really “free and enlightened”, as required by the GDPR? and is the proposed subscription price justified and reasonable?
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