Meta’s current Commercial Terms preview schedules the revised terms to take effect on November 20, 2026. AMI and other European media organizations have reportedly asked the European Commission for interim measures to suspend them, while the clause at the center of the dispute authorizes automated access to business-related web pages for advertising and business-product purposes.

Meta’s terms list November 20 as the effective date

The current Meta Commercial Terms preview lists November 20, 2026. La Voz de Galicia reported October 30 as the expected date on October 22; GadgetsNow reported the next day that Meta had moved the date to November 20.

The date change came alongside a dispute over what Meta’s terms permit. The preview places the crawling provision in section 1.

What the crawling clause permits

Section 1 authorizes automated software to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve or crawl domains, pages and URLs associated with a business’s products or services. It also allows Meta to retrieve updates periodically. The terms cover commercial uses such as advertising, marketing messages, selling or listing products, managing business Pages or Groups, and using Ads Manager, Meta Business Suite or measurement services.

Meta says the crawling supports its advertising and business products, including developing, improving, researching and maintaining them. The clause does not expressly name AI training as a purpose. AMI’s concern, reported on October 22, is that collected material could be used to train Meta AI.

Meta offered a separate explanation through a spokesperson quoted by GadgetsNow on October 23: site owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences, and the terms do not give Meta rights that override those preferences. The spokesperson also said the update was not about scraping news sites.

What AMI and European media groups requested

La Voz de Galicia reported on October 22 that the Asociación de Medios de Información (AMI), European Magazine Media Association (EMMA), European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA), European Publishers Council (EPC) and News Media Europe sought urgent interim measures from the European Commission to suspend the terms.

The organizations argued that the terms offered no meaningful negotiation and could weaken publishers’ control over journalism and compensation for its use. Their request cited concerns under Article 6(12) of the Digital Markets Act and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.