The UK Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into Meta’s proposed business terms on October 30, after a Norwegian court issued a temporary injunction at the request of 180 media companies on October 28. WAN-IFRA has separately urged Meta to withdraw the terms, which publishers fear could make access to Meta’s business services conditional on allowing their website content to be collected or reused without payment, according to El Correo.
What WAN-IFRA wants Meta to change
WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, called for Meta to withdraw the proposed terms and consult a representative delegation from the publishing industry. It also asked that publishers of any size be able to refuse permission without losing platform access, distribution or referral traffic.
What the proposed clause covered
Nieman Lab reported that the original clause authorized automated tools to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve or crawl domains, pages and URLs associated with a business user’s products or services. It also allowed for periodic updates. The listed uses included developing, improving and training Meta products and services.
The reported scope concerned commercial use of Meta services, including managing pages or groups, running ads, sending marketing messages and using the business dashboard. That describes business activity, not a blanket rule for every personal profile or creator account.
The wording changed, but crawling remained
Nieman Lab later reported that Meta removed the explicit word “train” from the proposed clause and linked its stated purposes to advertising and business products. The crawling permission remained. Legal experts cited by the outlet said the remaining language could still be read broadly enough to include AI-related development.
Meta said the update was intended to retrieve accurate information about products sold on third-party websites for advertising and content recommendations. The company also said its crawler practices were not changing and publishers could use robots.txt to signal their preferences. Nieman Lab reported that the contract text it reviewed did not expressly promise to honor those preferences.
Meta’s help page lists November 20, 2026, as the scheduled effective date for its updated Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms.
The Norwegian and UK actions
The Norwegian court’s October 28 order temporarily suspended the new terms for the 180 media companies that requested it, pending further review, the Associated Press reported. The UK Competition and Markets Authority began its investigation into the terms on October 30. These proceedings followed distinct paths: one was a temporary court order for applicants, the other a regulatory investigation.
