Social media giant Meta (META.O) has made an offer to limit its utilization of advertising data from other businesses for its Facebook Marketplace service, as announced by Britain’s competition watchdog on Friday. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated its inclination to accept these commitments, which would enable advertisers to opt out of having their data utilized to enhance the Facebook Marketplace classified ads platform.
Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s executive director of enforcement, emphasized the importance of reducing the risk of Meta unfairly exploiting businesses’ data for its own competitive advantage. This measure, if implemented, could provide significant assistance to numerous UK businesses that advertise on the platform. The CMA is currently in the process of consulting on these commitments, which they believe, at this stage, will effectively address their concerns.
The CMA provided an example to illustrate the potential impact of Meta’s data usage. They highlighted the scenario where Meta could utilize data obtained from a user’s engagement with ads on Facebook to deduce their interest in trainers. Consequently, this information could influence the listings for shoes presented to that specific user on Facebook Marketplace.
The consultation period for Meta’s proposals is set to conclude on June 26th, providing an opportunity for stakeholders to provide their input and feedback on the matter.