# Publishers ask EU, UK to halt Meta AI-scraping terms

Published: 2026-10-23T02:21:48.534Z · Source: Reuters (https://live.euronext.com/en/financial-news/publishers-advertisers-call-eu-uk-antitrust-regulators-suspend-metas-new-commercial)
Source date: 2026-10-22
Flags: single-source — confirmation pending

The Movement for an Open Web, an advocacy group whose members include digital advertisers and publishers, has complained to the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and requested interim measures to suspend Meta's new commercial terms before they take effect Oct. 30, per Reuters. Co-founder Tim Cowen called the terms "clearly anti-competitive," saying businesses with no real alternative to Meta's services would be forced to sign away rights to their content, which Meta could then use to power AI services that compete with them. Meta says the terms apply only to its ads and business products and don't change how its crawlers behave or override robots.txt. The complaint follows similar objections raised by the European Publishers Council the week of Oct. 12 and by Germany's BDZV and the UK's MVFP earlier the week of Oct. 19 — the same underlying clause News/Media Alliance asked Meta to withdraw on Oct. 22. The CMA says it met with Meta on Oct. 21 and is in "urgent discussions"; the European Commission says it received the complaint and will assess it under its usual procedure.

Why it matters: A fourth group in two weeks has now asked a regulator — not just Meta — to act on the same clause, and this is the first to invoke antitrust law and ask for interim measures rather than simply protest the wording.

## What this answers

**Did publishers and advertisers file a complaint against Meta's new terms?**

Yes — the Movement for an Open Web, whose members include digital advertisers and publishers, complained to the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and requested interim measures to suspend Meta's new commercial terms before they take effect Oct. 30, per Reuters.

**What do Meta's new commercial terms let it do with website content?**

Critics including the Movement for an Open Web and the European Publishers Council say the terms give Meta an unlimited right to scrape content from nearly any website tied to a business or ad account to power its AI products; Meta says the crawling terms apply only to its ads and business products and don't override robots.txt.


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