TLDR
Free TV Australia, backed by Seven, Nine and Ten, has asked the ACCC to engage urgently with Meta over new commercial terms that would let Meta scrape content from websites linked to businesses on its platforms. The UK competition regulator has opened an investigation into the same terms, and Meta has paused the rollout.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What Free TV is asking
Free TV Australia, whose members include Seven, Nine, Ten, WIN and Imparja, has written to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission asking it to engage with Meta over new commercial terms before they take effect. Seven, Nine and Ten signed the letter.[1]
The clause in dispute would let Meta use automated tools to collect content from websites linked to businesses on its platforms, including content hosted away from Facebook and Instagram. Broadcasters fear that material could be used to build Meta's own products, including AI services, without a separate licence or payment.[1]
"Broadcasters can't refuse these terms without losing access to their audiences, and Meta knows it," said Bridget Fair, chief executive of Free TV Australia. "This is a clear misuse of market power." She said Free TV is "calling on the ACCC to act urgently and engage with Meta before the 20 November deadline".[1]
The ACCC declined to confirm whether it had received complaints or was considering action.[1]
The UK has opened an investigation
On 30 October, the UK Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into whether Meta is abusing a dominant position by imposing exploitative terms on publishers and advertisers. The CMA said the terms could let Meta collect content from business and publisher websites and use it to develop its own products, including AI features, without businesses choosing whether or how their content is used.[2]
"Where a company holds a dominant position, it must not use that position to impose unfair terms," said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell. The regulator stressed that no decision has been made on whether Meta has broken the law.[2]
Meta has already backed off once
Meta had planned to introduce the terms on 30 October, then delayed them to 20 November, and on 28 October paused the rollout pending consultation with industry groups.[2] Earlier in October it removed the word "train" from the terms, and it says news sites, like all content owners, can still block its crawler using robots.txt.[3]
In Norway, a coalition of rival publishers and broadcasters has won an interim injunction stopping the terms being applied to its members until their legality is decided.[1]
The terms cover every business that uses Meta's platforms, not just broadcasters. Any Australian brand or publisher whose website is linked from a Facebook or Instagram page sits inside the same clause.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
