The European Commission has announced that Meta will update its pay-or-consent mechanism for Facebook and Instagram users from January following its current failure to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).  

BEUC’s analysis is that the current user flow - i.e. what users see on their screen - released in June 2025, is littered with behavioural techniques which undermine the ability of consumers to receive the choice they are entitled to under the DMA. The current user flow also hampers their ability to provide freely-given consent, as required by both the GDPR and the DMA. BEUC argues that Meta must remove all dark patterns in the user flow and provide upfront the option where less of their personal data is used, in order to comply.

Agustín Reyna, Director General of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said:  

“We will be very closely analysing what Meta puts out in January, given that it has failed since November 2023 to provide consumers with a fair choice on ads that complies with the law. For over two years, consumers have been subjected to incomplete choices and unreasonable user flows littered with biased wording and interface designs to trick consumers into consenting to Meta’s personalised ads model. The changes Meta will now make must not be cosmetic: they must provide consumers with a meaningful choice.”

Background

The Digital Markets Act requires that a company like Meta seeks freely-given consent, as understood under the GDPR, from users in order to use their personal data for ads purposes and must provide a ‘less personalised but equivalent alternative’ to a fully personalised ads option. Meta has already been found non-compliant on this point with the Digital Markets Act in April 2025 and been fined €200m.  

BEUC has previously filed submissions to the European Commission about Meta’s possible non-compliance with the DMA. It has also filed complaints against Meta with the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) network on the basis of consumer law breaches, and separately filed complaints with data protection authorities about Meta’s data processing practices which we suspect breach the GDPR.