Facebook and Instagram forced to reduce ad-free subscription in Europe by 40%

Meta has just announced plans to reduce the subscription price for no ads in Europe by 40 percent. Besides that, Meta revealed that it will use significantly less data to show ads, which means that users who don’t pay for an ad-free experience will see ads that may be less relevant to their interests.

Obviously, this isn’t something that Meta wishes to do, but the changes will eventually be implemented in response to demands from EU regulators. According to Meta, even though the feedback goes beyond what is required in the law, it’s still willing to proceed with these plans.

So, going forward, Facebook and Instagram users in the EU will still have the option to choose between subscribing for an ad-free experience or continuing to access these social network services for free.

As far as the price goes, from this week, the price of the monthly subscription will be €5.99/month on the web, down from €9.99, or €7.99/month on iOS and Android, down from €12.99. Also, Meta will charge €4/month on the web and €5/month on iOS and Android for each additional Facebook or Instagram account.



Existing subscribers won’t have to do anything as the price will be automatically reduced. Meta also confirmed that it will ask again users in the EU to choose their preferred ads experience on Facebook and Instagram, especially since the subscription price has been reduced.

Finally, Meta announced that in response to the feedback from EU regulators, and in order to continue to provide its services for free to as many users in the region as possible, it will launch an additional option for EU citizens.



Over the coming weeks, EU citizens who choose to use Facebook and Instagram for free with ads will be able to choose to see “less personalized ads.” Basically, this means that Meta will use less of your data when deciding what ads to serve you.

Instead, Facebook and Instagram will show ads based only on context like what a person sees in a particular session on either of the two social media platforms, as well as a minimal set of data points such as a person’s age, location, gender, and how a person engages with ads.