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European publishers ask Brussels to hold Meta’s crawling terms
The European Publishers Council wrote to the European Commission a second time, saying Meta’s revised ad terms change little before their 20 November start.
For the second time, Europe’s big news publishers have asked Brussels to look at Meta’s new business and ad terms, through the European Publishers Council. The terms now start on 20 November 2026, after Meta moved the date back on 23 October, and the council says “little has changed in substance” in its statement the same day.
Its complaint is about crawling. Meta’s latest text no longer names AI training in its website-crawling clause; the stated purposes are now its ad and business products and keeping its services secure. The council says the clause still lets Meta’s bots fetch, store and analyse business websites on a schedule, and that it rules out none of answers, summaries or training. Saying no to those uses means giving up Meta’s business tools altogether, the council argues.
It wants the Commission to examine the terms under the Digital Markets Act and competition law, PPC Land reports. If interim measures cannot come before 20 November, it asks for a commitment from Meta to postpone the contested provisions. The letter itself is not public.
Our guide to Meta’s new ad terms, read on 6 October and updated on 24 October 2026, also covers the clause that makes advertisers answer for edits Meta’s AI makes to their ads.
The council’s statement never names that AI-edit clause, so it faces no challenge of its own in this request and keeps its 20 November start for advertisers.
Earlier on this story: Meta pushes its new ad terms back to 20 November
Sources
- European Publishers Council: Meta needs to draw a clear line between providing a service and appropriating rights from their business users. Checked
- PPC Land: European publishers ask EU to halt Meta’s crawling terms before Nov 20. Checked
Alexandre S.
Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.
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