Context: In April 2024, Meta announced that the company would be using all public posts on Instagram and Facebook published by adults in the EU, as well as questions posed to Meta AI, to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models starting June 2024. This would not be on an opt-in basis, and once their data is in the system, consumers would have no option of ever having it removed. The European Center for Digital Rights (known as “none of your business” or “NOYB”) filed complaints in 11 European countries, asking authorities to launch an urgency procedure to stop the change (June 6, 2024 NOYB press release). In response to those complaints, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) told Meta to delay its plans – over which the company was unsurprisingly “disappointed” (June 14, 2024 Meta blog post). However, after working with the DPC to implement an option for users to “submit an objection request” to their data being used, Meta confirmed last month that starting May 27, 2025 their AI training model would be going ahead as planned (April 14, 2025 Meta blog post).
What’s new: The North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Center (VZNRW), a major German consumer protection organization, has sent Meta a cease and desist letter, warning it that if it doesn’t stop its AI training plans, the consumer rights organisation would file a preliminary injunction (May 6, 2025 VZNRW press release). In a public response yesterday, Meta said such legal action would be a “major setback” for Germany’s goal of maintaining a competitive position in the global AI race (May 6, 2025 Meta blog post). An injunction of this kind would also “undermine” the EU’s single market as it would call into question the principle that companies operating across Europe do not have to deal with 27 different bodies enforcing the EU’s digital regulatory framework, leading to additional unpredictability and uncertainty, Meta stated.
Direct impact: Market reactions have already started flooding in, including from NOYB, which said yesterday that it “fully supports” VZNRW’s planned action (May 6, 2025 NOYB blog post). “The company falsely claims to have a legitimate interest in this extensive data use – even though it should actually ask those affected for their consent,” it wrote. NOYB’s founder Max Schrems added: “Meta is deliberately trying to ignore European law and is putting its commercial interests above the fundamental right to data protection of those affected. But if Meta ignores EU law, there will be consequences for the whole of Europe.”
Wider ramifications: At the AI Action Summit in Paris earlier this year, policymakers from across Europe declared that the EU intends to play a leading role in the development and deployment of AI. But according to Meta, Europe’s “fragmented legal and regulatory landscape… highlighted by the actions of VZNRW” threatens that vision. If an injunction is obtained, the company believes German consumers who want locally relevant AI technology and German companies that want to build on AI models that understand local nuances would suffer. Meta added: “The significant differences in the interpretation of EU regulations across the continent are creating enormous obstacles for companies operating across Europe. This, in turn, is slowing down innovation and hindering the development and adoption of new technologies.”
VZNRW data protection expert Christine Steffen said in a statement yesterday that “time is of the essence” because once data has been fed into AI, it is very difficult to retrieve it again.
She added:
“It cannot be ruled out that particularly sensitive information, which is specially protected under the General Data Protection Regulation, is also used for AI training purposes. In this case, a so-called opt-out – as offered by Meta – is not sufficient; those affected would have to actively consent to this.”
The opt-out function offered by Meta allows consumers to object before May 27, 2025 – and this objection does not need to be justified. However, VZNRW claims that this procedure does not comply with EU laws.
In a blog post yesterday, Meta noted that regulatory uncertainty already delays German consumers and businesses’ access to technologies that are available much sooner in the rest of the world.
One example of this is Meta AI launched in the U.S. in September 2023, India in June 2024, and the UK in October 2024 – but it only launched in Germany in April 2025 (with limited functionality).
And this delay in adopting technologies due to the “fragmented and overlapping regulatory system in Europe” applies to numerous AI companies, Meta claims. The company points to the Draghi report, concluding:
“Without reform and simplification of the European regulatory system, Europe risks falling further behind in the global AI race and losing ground to the US and China.”