Meta will now need to ask permission from its EU users before showing them targeted advertising, after a series of regulatory rulings challenged its main financial strategy.

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram will be obliged to stop gathering audience data, without first asking permission, in order to create user profiles that can be targeted by advertisers.

Although the Mark Zuckerberg-owned firm argued that its needs to process user data were ‘legitimate’, it has now accepted the EU’s rulings and will first seek permission in accordance with the new data laws.

“We are announcing our intention to change the legal basis that we use to process certain data for behavioural advertising for people in the EU, EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland from ‘legitimate interests’ to ‘consent’,” Meta said in a recent blog post.

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These changes will affect Facebook and Instagram’s operations across the EU, Norway and Switzerland exclusively, and as such will have no bearing on how Meta operates within the UK.

The Information Commissioner’s Office executive director of regulatory risk, Stephen Almond, added: “As a digital regulator, we pay close attention to how companies operate internationally and how people’s rights are respected.

“We’re aware of Meta’s plans to seek consent from users for behavioural advertising in the EU, to the exclusion of the UK … We are assessing what this means for information rights of people in the UK and considering an appropriate response.”

Earlier in July, it was revealed that Meta ads are currently performing better than at any point since Apple’s ATT update in April 2021, with its conversion rates now rebounding.