EU Data Protection Board challenges Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published its opinion on ‘Pay or Consent’, the controversial ad subscription model adopted by large platforms. The model which has been adopted by Meta in the EU, requires users to pay for a version of Meta without ads or “consent” to Meta processing their data for ads. It has been under scrutiny for not giving users a “free choice.” “Online platforms should give users a real choice when employing ‘consent or pay’ models. The models we have today usually require individuals to either give away all their data or to pay. As a result most users consent to the processing in order to use a service, and they do not understand the full implications of their choices,” said EDPB Chair Anu Talus in a press release. What is Meta’s Pay or Consent model? Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), digital platforms are banned from processing users’ personal data for behavioral advertising. Users must provide a digital platform with ‘valid consent’ for their data to be used. In 2023, the EDPB banned Meta from processing personal data from EU users for its microtargeting ad business. Thus, in October 2023, Meta announced a new ‘Subscription for no ads’, where users would not be shown ads and more importantly, their data would not be tracked by Meta. However, users who did not wish to subscribe to the ad-free version of Facebook and Instagram would have to “consent” to Meta tracking their data, to…