In the European Union, Meta allows users to separate their Messenger and Marketplace accounts

For months, Meta has been resisting impending rules in the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union, but that is no longer the case. The business has said that it will abide by the DMA’s requirement that it not give preference to its own services or compel users to stay within its ecosystem. The EU will see significant changes to Meta’s user experience as a result of this decision, including the ability to use Facebook Marketplace and Messenger without a Facebook account. Meta had already appealed, claiming that the DMA should not apply to the two platforms.

Giving in means that Messenger and Facebook Marketplace users in the European Union can now utilize standalone accounts to access all the services’ features. With Marketplace, the only distinction is that email will be used for communication. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Meta advertisements are all covered under the European Commission’s Meta laws, in addition to Facebook Marketplace and Messenger. For instance, users are no longer required to link information between their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Six businesses were first named “gatekeepers” under the DMA by the European Commission: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft. Between them, there are 22 main platform services that are governed by law because of things like users, income, and valuation. An additional need for qualification was “if they provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services.” Apple and ByteDance are two other businesses that opposed the DMA’s rules before they go into effect in March 2024. Nonetheless, Alphabet-owned Google recently revealed that users could disable data sharing on several services, including Chrome and YouTube.