Meta has announced that it will be rolling out ad-free plans for its platforms Facebook and Instagram.
Through the plans, users in Europe would be to subscribe to a plan that allows them to use Facebook and Instagram without advertisements.
Meta made this move in order to comply with the European Union regulations, according to Reuters.
The plans will be charged monthly and are available to users in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland.
As part of subscription plans, Web users will be expected to pay 9.99 euros ($10.58) per month. Mobile phone users, iOS and Android users, including will have to shell out an additional fee amounting to a total of 12.99 euros a month.
The EU regulations threaten to curb Meta’s ability to personalise ads for users without their consent and hurt its major revenue source.
Earlier this year, the European Union fined Meta 390 million euros ($414 million) for relying on contracts with its users to justify its use of so-called behavioural ads, which are targeted based on a user’s online activity.
The introduction of GDPR in 2016 saw Meta change the terms of service for Facebook and Instagram and switch the legal basis upon which it processes that information to something called “contractual necessity”.
The ruling by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which took four years to investigate Meta, meant that the company would have to create a different version of its apps that would not use its users’ data for advertising.
However, the ruling does not amount to a ban on personalised advertising and businesses can continue using Meta’s platforms to target users with ads.
In addition, Meta would still be allowed to ask users for consent to ads with a “yes/no” option.
According to news agency Reuters, the company later said it intended to ask users in the EU for their consent before allowing businesses to target ads in order to address evolving regulatory requirements in the region.
