BRUSSELS, July 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) was

charged by EU antitrust regulators on Monday for failing to

comply with landmark tech rules as they took aim at its newly

introduced pay or consent advertising model.

The U.S. tech giant launched the no-ads subscription service

for Facebook and Instagram in Europe last November, saying users

who consent to be tracked get a free service which is funded by

advertising revenues.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition

enforcer, said the binary choice breaches the bloc's Digital

Markets Act (DMA) which seeks to rein in the power of Big Tech,

as it sent its preliminary finding to Meta.

It said the binary choice forces users to consent to the

combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a

less personalised but equivalent version of Meta's social

networks.

"We want to empower citizens to be able to take control over

their own data and choose a less personalised ads experience,"

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

Reuters was the first to report that the EU competition

enforcer would charge Meta with non-compliance under the Digital

Markets Act (DMA).

The charge against Meta came a week after the EU watchdog

issued its first DMA charge against Apple ( AAPL ) for not

complying with the new rule.