The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into Meta Platforms, Inc. to determine whether the tech giant is abusing a dominant position by imposing unfair commercial terms on news publishers and business users.

The probe, initiated under Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998, focuses on proposed revisions to Meta’s terms for business account holders across its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Regulators suspect that the updated terms would allow Meta to collect content—including news articles, images, and videos—from corporate websites to train its artificial intelligence models and develop proprietary services, without offering content creators a choice or opt-out mechanism.

The CMA opened the inquiry following complaints from industry stakeholders, including the News Media Association and the Movement for an Open Web. Regulators are concerned that Meta is leveraging its market power to impose exploitative trading conditions on thousands of UK businesses that depend on its network to reach audiences.

Meta originally intended to roll out the revised commercial terms on October 30. Following preliminary engagement with the regulator, the company initially deferred implementation to November 20 before pausing the rollout entirely to conduct industry consultations.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, emphasized that dominant digital platforms must not use their market position to dictate unfair contractual terms to business users. She noted that the authority is moving swiftly to evaluate whether Meta’s conduct breaches UK competition law, with an initial evidence-gathering phase running through January 2027.

The investigation will formally assess whether Meta holds a dominant market position in the UK and if its commercial terms constitute an abuse of that position. The CMA clarified that opening the inquiry does not imply a final determination of wrongdoing. Separately, the regulator is gathering information regarding Meta’s new “Meta One” business subscription service following concerns raised by small business groups, though that matter falls outside the scope of the current antitrust proceeding.