Meta rolls out paid plans: How much will ad-free Facebook and Instagram cost in Czechia?

Meta Platforms, parent company of social media sites Facebook and Instagram, announced on its website Monday new subscription plans to comply with EU privacy regulations.

Meta will offer EU-based users (including those in Czechia), Switzerland, and the European Economic Area the option to pay a monthly fee to access Facebook and Instagram without seeing ads.

Subscription options will be offered from November. Meta has not yet confirmed a specific date for when users will be able to purchase them.

The new subscriptions allow Meta to continue personalizing ads and driving advertising sales while complying with European privacy standards that require user opt-in for data collection and profiling used in ad targeting.

Users can subscribe for EUR 9.99 (about CZK 246) per month to use Facebook and Instagram ad-free on desktop browsers, or EUR 12.99 (CZK 320) per month for the ad-free option on mobile devices with Android and the iPhone operating system (iOS). 

Until March 1, 2024, the initial subscription covers all a user’s linked accounts. From March 1, 2024, however, an additional fee of EUR 6 per (CZK 148) month on the web and EUR 8 monthly on iOS and Android will apply for each additional account listed in a subscribers' Account Center.

For nearly 20 years, Meta has funded its free social media platforms primarily through targeted digital advertising. Europe represents Meta's second largest market after North America, accounting for about 10 percent of its overall business.

According to Reuters, Meta’s subscription service is an attempt to circumvent EU laws that threaten its main advertising revenue model by giving users control over ad tracking preferences.

In January, the Irish Data Protection Authority – Meta has one of its headquarters in Ireland – fined the company EUR 390 million for forcing users to accept targeted advertising as a condition for using Facebook. 

In July this year, the EU's Supreme Court banned Meta from combining data collected about users across its platforms – and from other websites and apps – unless it gets users’ explicit consent.