Meta has established a new model for obtaining user consent in the UK, and it comes with a clear cost. Under the new system, users who do not wish to consent to having their data used for personalised ads must now pay a monthly fee of up to £3.99 to withhold that consent.
The new ad-free subscription for Facebook and Instagram essentially monetises the act of refusal. By choosing not to pay, users are now deemed to be actively consenting to the ad-supported model. This framework was designed specifically to meet the legal requirement for a clear user choice.
This “cost of consent” model has been approved by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO, which had insisted on a valid consent mechanism, believes that the choice between a free service with ads and a paid one without them constitutes a lawful basis for processing the data of non-subscribers.
This interpretation is fiercely contested in the European Union. The European Commission fined Meta €200m, arguing that consent obtained under such a “pay or okay” condition is not freely given and is therefore invalid. The EU’s Digital Markets Act is designed to prevent what it sees as coercive consent models.
In the UK, the debate has been settled for now. The price of withholding consent from Meta’s ad machine has been set, turning a fundamental principle of data protection law into a transactional choice for millions of British users.