Following discussions with privacy regulatory authorities, the Meta group proposed, on Tuesday March 19, to reduce the cost of the monthly subscription for Facebook and Instagram by almost half, from 9.99 euros to 5.99 euros, according to the Reuters agency.
Since November 2023, the company has offered European users of its two main social networks the choice between continuing to use these services free of charge by agreeing to provide their personal data for targeted advertising purposes, or paying a subscription to not no longer see any advertisements. Offering this choice, according to the Meta group, allows it to comply with European rules on the processing of personal data, which limit its ability to personalize advertisements for users without their consent, which has a direct impact on its main source of income.
Criticism has nevertheless increased against this new formula, accusing it of making users pay to protect their privacy. Two complaints have been filed in recent months, one by the Austrian non-governmental organization None of Your Business (NOYB), the other by a group of consumer associations from eight different countries. As part of both procedures, the American group is accused of violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
More recently, Friday March 15, 39 MEPs returned to this paid option in a open letter addressed to Meta: “ We urge your business to abandon the “pay or okay” model and align with the principles of GDPR, respecting the fundamental rights of EU citizens. »
Reducing the subscription price is, for Meta, a way of responding to these criticisms. “We therefore proposed to lower the price from 9.99 euros to 5.99 euros for a single account and to 4 euros for any additional account”said Tim Lamb, lawyer for Meta, during a hearing at the European Commission on Tuesday. “This is, by far, the lowest price in the range that any reasonable person should have to pay for services of this quality”he added, according to Politico. A “serious offer”according to him, which would allow “to speed up the process”.
“In reality, it has nothing to do with money, the problem is the whole pay or okay approach, reacted Max Schrems, activist at the head of the NOYB organization, from the Reuters agency. We do not believe that simply changing the price will make this approach legal. » The European Data Protection Board, an organization which brings together all the European personal data police, like the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties in France, must issue an opinion on Meta’s new paid model in the coming days, according to Politico.