Meta’s peculiar acumen—moving privacy ahead in social media markets

Abstract This article puts forward a new perspective on Meta Platforms Inc., a recent breakthrough decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), reconfiguring key debates around the use of personal data by social media companies and how that use affects the manner in which individuals and social relations are represented, realized, and governed through digital markets. The decision enables dominant social media companies to offer, for an appropriate fee, a paid version of their products if users reject personal data processing by the platform. While Meta defies conventional viewpoints as to how consumers can give valid consent to the processing of their personal data, this article submits that the decision to enable them to do so in this fashion is expedient. The CJEU uncovers a rift between different avenues of consumer influence and recognizes that these avenues are interlinking means of moving privacy ahead in concentrated markets. Though existing legal doctrine does not fully accept that vital reality, Meta in fact clears the way for privacy to be realized in digital markets.