By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Meta Platforms is set to be told by the EU’s privacy watchdog that it cannot charge users a fee to ensure their privacy, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Meta’s no-ads subscription service, which applies to Facebook and Instagram and launched in Europe in November, requires users to pay a fee to ensure their privacy. It has prompted criticism from privacy activists and consumer groups.
The U.S. tech giant referred on Wednesday to its previous blogs which said that ‘subscription for no ads’ conforms to a European Union court ruling backing such models as a way for people to consent to data processing for targeted advertising.
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which will publish its opinion shortly, declined to comment.
“We welcome that the EDPB has started a more nuanced discussion on ‘pay or okay’ and at least clarified that large platforms cannot use ‘pay or okay’,” Advocacy group NOYB’s chairman Max Schrems said in a statement.
Politico first reported the EDPB’s opinion.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Alexander Smith)
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