UK competition regulator opens formal investigation into Meta over AI data-scraping terms

Britain's competition regulator opened a formal investigation into Meta on Friday, escalating a weeks-long standoff over new commercial terms that critics say would let the company scrape content from publishers' and other businesses' websites to train its artificial-intelligence systems.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it is examining whether Meta holds a dominant position in a relevant UK market and, if so, whether the terms it planned to impose on businesses using its platforms amount to an abuse of that position, according to the notice the regulator published under Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998. The case opens roughly a month after news publishers and advertising groups first raised alarms over the terms, and two days after Meta itself paused their rollout pending further talks with industry.

What the CMA is examining

At issue are revised commercial terms Meta planned to apply to businesses holding accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The CMA said the terms could let Meta collect content from those businesses' own websites — not just material posted on Meta's platforms — and use it to develop its products and services, including AI features, without giving businesses a meaningful choice over whether or how their content is used. The regulator said this could cause particular harm to news publishers and other content-dependent businesses, which often rely on Meta's platforms for referral traffic even as they compete with Meta's AI products.

Meta had originally planned to bring the terms into effect on October 30; a notice on Meta's own commercial-terms page now says the updates will go into effect on November 20, after an initial wave of objections, and on October 28 Meta paused the rollout entirely while it consults with affected industry groups. The investigation does not depend on that pause — the CMA can examine conduct that has been announced but not yet implemented — and the regulator said it opened the case after gathering information through weeks of correspondence and a meeting with Meta on October 21.

• Legal basis: Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998, covering abuse of a dominant market position
• Subject: Meta's revised commercial terms for business accounts on Facebook and Instagram
• Status: Formal investigation opened; no finding yet that Meta has broken the law
• Meta's terms: delayed from October 30 to November 20, then paused entirely on October 28

Who is pushing for action

The complaints that preceded the investigation came chiefly from news publishers and an advertising-industry coalition. The News Media Association had written to the CMA urging it to intervene before the terms took effect, warning that smaller local publishers — some of which draw up to a third of their referral traffic from Facebook — would be hit hardest. A separate complaint came from the Movement for an Open Web, a group representing advertisers and publishers, which asked the CMA and the European Commission to impose interim measures blocking the terms.

"Dominant companies must not use that position to impose unfair terms on the businesses that rely on them," CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said in the regulator's statement announcing the investigation, adding that the authority is "acting swiftly" and wants "a quick and satisfactory resolution."

Cardell had signaled the CMA's concern days earlier, telling members of Parliament that the regulator shared the publishers' concerns "at face value" but needed to understand Meta's position better before deciding whether to act formally or informally. One constraint on the CMA's options is that Meta has not been designated with "strategic market status" under Britain's newer digital markets regime, which would give the regulator more direct tools to block conduct before it happens; Cardell has named Meta as a candidate for that designation in the future.

What it means for Meta and the industry

For Meta, the investigation adds a formal legal track to a dispute that has already cost the company time and goodwill with publishers across multiple jurisdictions. The company revised the US English version of its terms to remove the word "train" and limit certain language to advertising and business products, but critics — including legal analysts and the News/Media Alliance — have said the changes to wording do not necessarily narrow what Meta is actually permitted to do with scraped content, and that non-US versions of the terms retained the original language.

For publishers and other businesses that depend on Meta's platforms, the case tests how far UK competition law can reach into the terms a dominant platform imposes on the businesses that rely on it, a question that has taken on new urgency as AI companies seek training data at scale. A similar dynamic has already played out this year in the CMA's dealings with Google over search-related terms, which the News Media Association cited explicitly in pressing the regulator to act against Meta. Advertisers who hold Meta business accounts, and smaller publishers with limited negotiating leverage, are among those most directly affected by whatever the investigation ultimately decides.

What happens next

The CMA said it will now gather and assess evidence from Meta and affected third parties, with no fixed timetable disclosed and no finding yet that Meta has infringed competition law. The regulator retains the power to impose interim measures under the Competition Act if it judges urgent action necessary before the investigation concludes, though it has not yet done so. The CMA also said it is separately gathering information about Meta's "Meta One" business subscription product and about complaints from the Federation of Small Businesses over external links on Facebook and Instagram, though it stressed those matters fall outside the newly opened case.

Meta's self-imposed November 20 target for reintroducing the terms now sits awkwardly alongside an open competition investigation, and it is unclear whether the company will attempt to proceed on that timeline, revise the terms further, or wait for clearer signals from the CMA. The regulator said updates on the investigation's progress will be posted to its public case page as the inquiry proceeds.