ORCID
Arletta M. Gorecka – 0000-0001-6555-4264
Keywords
gatekeepers, DMA, privacy, user consent, data protection
Abstract
This case comment analyses the European Commission’s first non-compliance decision under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), focusing on Meta’s “pay-orconsent” model and its incompatibility with Article 5(2). The Commission held that Meta failed to provide users with a genuinely equivalent, privacy-protective alternative to behavioural advertising, thereby undermining the voluntariness of consent and commodifying user data in violation of DMA standards. The comment situates the ruling within broader EU regulatory trends, highlighting parallels with Apple’s infringement of Article 5(4) DMA and the Commission’s emerging outcomes-oriented enforcement approach. It argues that these decisions jointly clarify gatekeeper obligations, expand the meaning of “free of charge,” and signal the Commission’s commitment to substantive, rather than merely formal, compliance. The analysis concludes that the Meta decision sets a significant legal and market precedent, reinforcing the DMA’s goals of contestability, user autonomy, and structural safeguards against entrenched digital dominance.
Acknowledgements
Funding
This article received no outside funding.
Declaration of Conflict of Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.
Declaration about the scope of AI utilisation
The author did not use AI tools in the preparation of this article.
Recommended Citation
Gorecka, A. M. (2025). [Preprint] The 'Pay-or-Consent' Model and Competition Policy: A Case Comment on the European Commission’s Decision Against Meta Under the Digital Markets Act. Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 18(32). https://doi.org/10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2025.18.32.3
Page Count
21
DOI
10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2025.18.32.3
JEL Code
K21, K23, L41, L86, D18
Publisher
University of Warsaw
