Publishers, advertisers call EU, UK antitrust regulators to suspend Meta's new commercial terms

Digital advertisers and publishers have urged EU and UK antitrust regulators to temporarily halt Meta Platforms' new commercial terms, set to begin on October 30. These new terms allegedly grant Meta an unlimited right to utilize their content for AI services. The Movement for an Open Web, an advocacy group comprised of digital advertisers and publishers, has lodged complaints with the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, seeking interim measures.

Publishers around the world are intensifying their opposition to AI companies utilizing their content without permission to train large language models, highlighting the ongoing conflict between copyright holders and entities advocating for fair use. Tim Cowen, co-founder of the Movement for an Open Web, stated that Meta's new terms are undeniably anti-competitive, as many businesses have little choice but to use Meta's services and must effectively surrender the rights to their digital content without the option to opt out.

Meta responded to the complaints, asserting that the new crawling terms only apply to their advertising and business products, and do not alter how Meta uses web crawlers. Content owners can still employ robots.txt to signal their preferences. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority met with Meta on Wednesday to gather more information on the new business terms. The European Commission has not yet provided an official response to inquiries for comment.