Pay us, or let us track you, was not a real choice.

On 23 April 2025, the European Commission found that Meta breached the Digital Markets Act and fined it €200 million, one of the first two fines under the law. Since November 2023, Meta had given EU Facebook and Instagram users a binary choice: consent to Meta combining their personal data across services for personalised advertising, or pay a monthly subscription for an ad-free service.

The DMA says a gatekeeper must ask before combining personal data across its services, and anyone who refuses must get a less personalised but otherwise equivalent alternative. The Commission found “consent or pay” offered no such option and did not let people consent freely. The decision covers the period that model applied; Meta appealed on 4 July 2025.

What changed afterwards

Meta had already added a “less personalised ads” option in November 2024, which the Commission assessed separately. In December 2025, the Commission acknowledged Meta’s undertaking to give EU users a clearer choice, and by late January 2026 users were being shown a new option to share less data and see less personalised ads, alongside the paid no-ads subscription. The Commission says it will gather evidence on how the new model works in practice.

The pattern is familiar: a design that makes the data-hungry option free and the private one cost money, then a regulator forcing a third door open. Whether that door is easy to find, and genuinely equivalent, is the test that remains.

What to do

If you are in the EU, revisit the ad choice Meta shows you on Facebook and Instagram rather than accepting the first option, and review your ad preferences in Meta’s Accounts Center. Outside the EU, the same options may not exist; the privacy toolkit on this site covers browser and network tools that reduce tracking whichever plan you are on.