An activist group called NOYB (None of Your Business) out of Austria filed a legal complaint against Meta on the 28 November for an alleged EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violation. 

According to the GDPR, users must have a “genuine or free choice” when deciding whether to share their data, which the activist group says is not happening under the new paywall system.

The non-profit has urged the Austrian data protection authority to initiate a procedure to stop Meta’s legal processing, and suggests too that the authority imposes a deterrent fine, which would make sure other companies do not start copying Meta’s approach.

Under Meta’s new system, Facebook alone will introduce a fee of up to €12.99 per month if users do not consent to their personal data being processed for targeted digital advertising and each linked account, such as Instagram, will be an additional €8. This adds up to €251.88 per year for one person using Instagram and Facebook. 

“More than 20% of the EU population are already at risk of poverty. For the complainant in our case, as for many others, a ‘Pay or Okay’ system would mean paying the rent or having privacy,” said NOYB chairman Max Schrems.

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Meta’s Q3 earnings report this year shows that the average revenue for a user in Europe equates to roughly €62.88 per year, putting the new monthly fee out of proportion, according to NOYB.

The company, which has a market cap of over $871 billion (£686bn), relies heavily on the collection and sale of user data to advertisers as a source of income. 

“When 3 percent of people actually want to swim, but 99.9 percent end up in the water, every child knows that it wasn’t a “free” choice,” continued Schrems.

“It’s neither smart nor legal—it’s just pitiful how Meta continues to ignore EU law.

“Fundamental rights are usually available to everyone. How many people would still exercise their right to vote if they had to pay € 250 to do so? There were times when fundamental rights were reserved for the rich. It seems Meta wants to take us back for more than a hundred years.”