Meta pauses its new business terms as UK regulator opens a probe.
Meta has paused the rollout of its revised commercial terms for businesses, and the UK competition regulator has opened a formal investigation into them. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says Meta announced the pause on 28 October, pending a consultation with industry groups.
The CMA announced the investigation on 30 October under the Competition Act 1998. It will look at whether Meta holds a dominant position in a relevant UK market and, if so, whether the terms amount to an unfair imposition on businesses. Its concern is that the terms could let Meta collect content from the websites of businesses and publishers that use its services, then use it to develop its own products, including AI features, without those businesses getting a choice. The regulator says it acted after hearing from stakeholders including the News Media Association and Movement for an Open Web, and that no decision has been made on whether the law was broken.
This is an update to the earlier delay. The terms were first due on 30 October, and on 23 October Meta told Reuters it was moving the date to 20 November. Social Media Today, reporting on 2 November, says Meta could now delay the rollout indefinitely, that Meta maintains the update is about data for ad targeting and not scraping, and that its preview copy of the terms still carried the 20 November date. The same report says the European Publishers Council is weighing its next steps. Separately, the CMA is asking Meta for information about its Meta One business subscription and about small-business concerns over posting external links, but it has taken no formal action on those.
What is still unknown is when the terms will return, whether the wording will change, and whether any revised version would apply differently by market. None of the sources I read names a new date, and none reports action by a Gulf regulator.
For marketers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf who buy on Facebook and Instagram, the practical point is that 20 November is no longer a safe planning date. The earlier text made advertisers responsible for what Meta's AI tools produce, so it is still worth checking which AI creative features are switched on in each ad account while the terms are on hold.
Why it matters
The 20 November date can no longer be relied on, and Meta's terms on AI use of business content are now under formal UK investigation.
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