UK's CMA opens investigation into Meta's terms for publishers and advertisers

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Britain's competition regulator on Friday said it has opened an investigation into whether Meta was imposing exploitative terms on publishers and advertisers to use their content to develop its own services, including its AI features.

The CMA said Facebook parent Meta's commercial terms could allow it to collect content from publishers' websites and use it to develop and provide its own products and services without businesses getting a choice on if or how their content is used.

The watchdog said that the terms, which it said Meta planned to revise on November 20 but has since put on hold, could amount to an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions.

The CMA's investigation will determine whether Meta holds a dominant position in a relevant UK market and, if so, whether the terms amount to abuse of that position.

Meta said there were "no grounds" for an investigation.

"We've already committed not to change our terms without consulting publishers and other stakeholders," a Meta spokesperson said. "We welcome the opportunity to explain our approach to the CMA."

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; writing by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)