• The European Union’s Court of justice has ruled that Meta must obtain consent before serving a certain amount of personalised ads to users in the region.
• The decision was taken in order to limit any potential abuse by Meta of its dominance in the market.
• The big tech company is yet to comment on the ruling, as it is also fighting a recent €390 million fine over personalised ads opt-in.

As Meta reportedly readies to launch its Twitter rival later this week, the company has come under increasing scrutiny in the European Union (EU) over its use of personalised ads.

This as the EU’s Court of Justice has made a ruling that seeks to limit the amount of personalised ads that Meta serves via Facebook. To that end, the platform would need to obtain consent from users in the region before it tried to serve a certain amount of ads.

The ruling also seeks to give GDPR a bit more teeth, allowing regulators in different parts of the EU to take steps against Meta if it is deemed to be leveraging its dominance in the market unfairly.

Meta is currently fighting such a decision, with it appealing a recent €390 million fine imposed on the tech giant for requiring users to accept personalised ads if they wish to access platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

“It [the Court] finds that the need for the performance of the contract to which the data subject is party may justify the practice at issue only on condition that the data processing is objectively indispensable such that the main subject matter of the contract cannot be achieved if the processing in question does not occur. Subject to verification by the national court, the Court of Justice expresses doubts as to whether personalised content or the consistent and seamless use of the Meta group’s own services are capable of fulfilling those criteria,” the press release explained.

“Moreover, according to the Court, the personalised advertising by which the online social network Facebook finances its activity, cannot justify, as a legitimate interest pursued by Meta Platforms Ireland, the processing of the data at issue, in the absence of the data subject’s consent,” it added.

At the time of writing, Meta is yet to officially comment on the ruling, but has told The Wall Street Journal (paywall) in a statement that it was, “evaluating the court’s decision”.

While it remains to be seen how Meta will approach this latest hurdle, it is also unclear how this limit or indeed the request to allow personalised ads will be carried out. We have already seen how Apple’s app tracking transparency change has impacted Meta’s bottom line, and the proposals in this ruling could do the same.

[Image – Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash]