The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has accepted Meta’s proposals to change to the ways in which it uses customers’ advertising data across Facebook Marketplace.

The social media giant had promised earlier this year to make concrete changes to how its uses advertising customers’ data, amid claims that its practices were giving it an unfair advantage.

Previously, businesses which competed with Facebook Marketplace but which advertising on Meta platforms were able to ‘opt out’ of their data being used to make improvements to Facebook Marketplace. 

The move, which follows consultation with the wider advertising sector, follows Meta pledging to limit how it uses advertising customers’ data in this way.

Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free

Sign up here to get the latest agency-related news sent straight to your inbox each morning

The new commitments give Meta an additional way to implement the data controls set up in the original pledge.

Under the new proposals, advertisers’ data will now no longer be used in any form to improve Facebook Marketplace – without asking them to either ‘opt in’ or ‘opt out’.

A statement from the regulator read: “The CMA has concluded that the revisions go above and beyond the original commitments and would not leave any advertisers worse off.

“As a result, the CMA has accepted the proposed variation.”

These changes are the result of an investigation opened by the CMA in 2021 over concerns that the way in which Meta collected data gave it an unfair advantage in sectors such as online classified ads and online dating.