Meta: AI Development

Lord Nagaraju Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)]

As far as the EU is concerned, noble Lords may wish to know that on 22 October the European Commission received a formal competition complaint about Meta’s revised commercial terms. It confirmed that it would assess the complaint under its established procedures, and welcomed Meta’s subsequent decision to delay implementation until 20 November. No formal decision or enforcement action has been announced. In respect of the CMA’s powers more generally, it already has powers under existing competition law to intervene where and when appropriate and is engaging urgently with Meta to consider its next steps. I remind noble Lords that the CMA is independent of government.

[Lord Nagaraju (Lab)]

My Lords, I refer to my interests set out in the register. Meta says that website owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences. Will the Government seek a binding commitment in Meta’s commercial terms, before 20 November, that instructions refusing crawling will be honoured, with an effective remedy for breaches?