Overview
- Meta has published revised commercial terms that consolidate crawling and reuse rights for websites “associated with” business accounts and are due to take effect on October 30, prompting a wave of complaints from publishers and advertisers.
- Meta says it removed the word “train,” limited future use to advertising and business products, and that existing crawler controls such as robots.txt still apply, but it did not add explicit contractual language to that effect.
- Publishers and industry groups have filed formal complaints and asked the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority for interim measures to block or review the terms before they go live.
- The CMA met with Meta and is urgently seeking information but says its powers are limited unless Meta is formally designated an entrenched market power, while EU bodies are considering whether the terms breach competition rules including the Digital Markets Act.
- Publishers warn there is no practical opt-out other than quitting Meta business tools and say the clause could undercut licensing revenue and spur lawsuits or regulatory action, so stakeholders are watching for any interim rulings before October 30.