On 30 October 2026, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into whether Meta's commercial terms amount to an abuse of a dominant position. The investigation is being conducted under Chapter II of the UK Competition Act 1998 and covers Meta Platforms, Inc., Facebook UK Limited and Facebook Ireland Limited. The CMA's concern is specific: businesses that rely on Meta's services to reach customers have almost no choice but to accept the terms, which may allow Meta to collect content from their websites to develop its own products and services, including AI features.
What exactly do the disputed terms say?
According to Reuters, the CMA considers that the terms could allow Meta to collect content from publishers' websites and use it to develop and provide its own products, with businesses given no choice over whether or how their content is used. Meta's revised commercial terms were originally due to take effect on 30 October 2026, were then postponed to 20 November, and have since been put on hold. Publisher groups had already complained to competition authorities in the EU and the UK, arguing that the new terms effectively gave Meta an unlimited right to use their content; Meta rejected that reading, saying the crawling provisions apply only to its advertising and business products. A court in Norway has already gone a step further, temporarily blocking the new terms from taking effect there, as described in the report on the Oslo court's temporary block on Meta's new terms (/article/2960).
A two-step investigation, with no conclusion yet
The CMA must first decide whether Meta holds a dominant position in one or more relevant UK markets, and then whether its existing terms, or revisions to those terms, amount to an abuse of that position. Under the timetable published by the CMA, October 2026 to January 2027 is a period of rapid initial information gathering, with evidence collected from Meta and third parties. The investigation may end with the case being closed, or the CMA may issue a statement of objections if it provisionally considers competition law to have been infringed, giving Meta an opportunity to respond before a final decision. The CMA stressed that no assumption should be made at this stage that competition law has been infringed; Reuters reported that Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Publishers are not the only ones affected
The terms bind every business operating on Meta's platforms; publishers and advertisers are simply the first to speak out. If the CMA ultimately finds an abuse, Meta may have to amend the terms or accept constraints; if it does not, the dispute will return to negotiation with publishers and to case-by-case rulings in national courts. For ordinary businesses, the practical step for now remains checking how their own websites are connected to their Meta business accounts, and watching whether the suspended revisions reappear in a new text or on a new timetable.
