UK regulator investigates whether Meta's terms for publishers break competition law

The UK's competition regulator has opened an investigation into whether the commercial terms Meta sets for businesses that use its platforms break competition law. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced the case on October 30, 2026. It is acting under Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998, which prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position, and the companies under investigation are Meta Platforms, Inc., Facebook UK Limited and Facebook Ireland Limited.

According to the CMA, the terms, which Meta had planned to revise, could let Meta gather material from the websites of publishers and other businesses that use its services, then put it to work in its own products and services, AI features among them, without the businesses being able to decide whether or how that happens. If news publishers and similar businesses are required to sign up, the CMA says, that could be an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions on thousands of UK firms that rely on Meta to reach customers and audiences.

Sarah Cardell, the CMA's chief executive, said that where a company holds a dominant position, “it must not use that position to impose unfair terms.” She said the regulator was acting swiftly after hearing concerns from news publishers and other businesses.

A paused change

Meta had planned to introduce the new terms on October 30. After discussions with the CMA, it moved the start date to November 20, and on October 28 it announced a pause to the rollout while it consults industry groups, the CMA says. The investigation covers Meta's existing terms as well as the revisions.

Why the CMA chose its older powers

The CMA said it turned to the Competition Act so that it could act urgently on concerns raised by groups including the News Media Association and Movement for an Open Web. Its newer digital markets regime gives it only limited powers over companies it has not designated with strategic market status, and Meta has not been designated. The regime has been used on Google, which the CMA designated with strategic market status in general search and search advertising in October 2025. The CMA says it keeps other possible candidates under review, with its board due to consider the next proposals in spring 2027.

The first question is whether Meta is dominant in at least one UK market. If it is, the CMA will assess whether its terms abuse that position. The law also lets the CMA order temporary interim measures if they are needed to prevent significant damage or to protect the public interest. Businesses found to have broken competition law can be fined up to 10% of their worldwide turnover, according to UK government guidance.

Meta and the CMA before

This is not the first time the CMA has examined how Meta uses other businesses' data. In June 2021 it opened an investigation into whether Meta gained an unfair advantage over competitors through the way it gathers and uses certain advertising data. In November 2023 the CMA accepted commitments from Meta, including an option for advertisers that compete with Facebook Marketplace to stop Meta from using their ad data to run or improve Marketplace. The CMA described Meta then as the UK's biggest supplier of digital display advertising by a wide margin, with £4 billion to £5 billion of UK advertising revenue in 2021 and more than 10 million advertisers.

In a separate inquiry, the CMA has asked Meta for information about Meta One, its new subscription service for businesses. The Federation of Small Businesses has raised concerns about how small firms could be affected if they share outside links on Facebook and Instagram without buying a subscription. The CMA says it has not decided whether to take formal action on that, and the issue is outside the new investigation.

What happens next

The CMA stresses that the case is at an early stage and that no assumption should be made that Meta has broken the law. It will gather evidence from Meta and from affected third parties. It may then close the case or, if it provisionally finds an infringement, send the companies a statement of objections explaining its concerns, which they can answer before any final decision.