A senior executive at Meta revealed today, Tuesday, that the company has proposed to reduce the monthly subscription fees for Facebook and Instagram by nearly half, from €9.99 to €5.99, in an effort to address concerns from regulatory bodies regarding privacy and antitrust issues.
The fee reduction follows increasing criticism from privacy advocates and consumer groups regarding the subscription service intended to avoid advertisements on Meta in Europe, which critics claim requires users to pay fees to ensure their privacy.
Meta launched the service in November to comply with the Digital Markets Act, which limits its ability to display advertisements to users without their consent, affecting its primary revenue source.
The company stated that the proposed fee model aims to balance the conflicting requirements of EU privacy laws and the Digital Markets Act.
Meta’s attorney, Tim Lamb, stated in a session before the European Commission: "We have wanted to accelerate this process for some time as we need to reach a stable situation... so we proposed reducing the price from €9.99 to €5.99 for the basic account and four euros for any additional accounts."
He added: "This is the minimum anyone rational should pay for services of this quality, and I believe this is a serious offer. There is currently ambiguity surrounding regulatory procedures and it needs to be resolved quickly."
