Meta Halts New Business Terms After European Regulators and Publishers Push Back
A Norwegian court order and a UK inquiry prompted the tech giant to pause a rollout that critics say allows unpaid data scraping for AI training.
By Julia Novak ·
Meta announced on Oct. 29 that it is postponing the rollout of updated terms for its business accounts. The company stated it is listening to feedback and that its existing terms remain in place for the time being. This decision follows a coordinated response from media companies and regulators across Europe who objected to the new rules.
The proposed terms were originally set to take effect on Oct. 30. They would have authorized Meta to use automated software, including web scrapers and bots, to index, cache, analyze, and collect data from domains associated with business accounts. Critics argued the language allowed Meta to scrape content without payment and use it to build competing services, such as artificial intelligence products.
On Oct. 28, a court in Norway granted a temporary injunction suspending the new terms. The order came at the request of 180 Norwegian media companies. Their case was supported by the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association, whose members represent approximately 97% of Norwegian newspaper circulation. Lene Eltvik Vindfeld, the association's chair, said the court agreed that Meta holds a dominant position in the market and that the new terms were unreasonable.
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority began its own investigation into the conditions on Oct. 30. The regulator expressed concern that requiring news publishers to accept these terms could amount to an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions. In the United States, the Association of American Publishers called on Meta to drop the terms, with president Maria A. Pallante stating that the company is abusing its dominant market power by compelling consent from commercial users.
Meta maintains that the update is designed to pull accurate product information for ad recommendations, not to scrape news sites. Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, posted on X that the company does not plan to make policy changes without full consultation with industry groups. The company also removed the word "train" from the updated terms following a report by the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, which cited legal experts who said the original language could support arguments for scraping news content to train AI models.
European regulators and industry groups have not fully accepted the delay. The European Commission confirmed it discussed the terms with Meta and welcomed the postponement. Spokesperson Sara Simonini said the commission is committed to ensuring Meta's practices comply with EU law, which prohibits abusing a dominant market position. The Norwegian Media Businesses' Association said it remains unsatisfied, demanding that publishers be able to reserve against scraping and that any use of journalism in AI products occur only through voluntary, paid agreements.
Tim Cowen of the Movement for an Open Web, which complained to the U.K. regulator, described the outcome as a win but warned that further action is needed. He said tech giants will continue to use their market power unless regulators make it clear that such practices are unacceptable. The European Commission also stated it has asked providers of AI models to provide details about the training materials they use under the EU's AI Act.
