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Wall Street Journal
7 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Meta to Halt Political Advertising in EU, Citing Transparency Rules
Meta META 0.39%increase; green up pointing triangle Platforms said it would stop political adverts being displayed on its social networks in the European Union from October, citing an incoming law designed to tackle misinformation and foreign interference in elections. 'From early October 2025, we will no longer allow political, electoral and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU,' the company said in a blog post on Friday.
CNA
21-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
Exclusive-Meta, X and LinkedIn appeal unprecedented VAT claim by Italy
MILAN :U.S. tech giants Meta, X and LinkedIn have lodged an appeal against an unprecedented VAT claim by Italy that could influence tax policy across the 27-nation European Union, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday. This is the first time that Italy has failed to reach a settlement agreement after bringing tax cases against tech companies, resulting in a fully-fledged judicial tax trial being launched. According to the sources, this came about because the case went beyond agreeing on a settlement figure and sought to establish a broader approach focused on how social networks provide access to their services. Italian tax authorities argue that free user registrations with X, LinkedIn and Meta platforms should be seen as taxable transactions as they imply the exchange of a membership account in return for a user's personal data. The issue is especially sensitive given wider trade tensions between the EU and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Italy is claiming 887.6 million euros ($1.03 billion) from Meta, 12.5 million euros from X and around 140 million euros from LinkedIn. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Elon Musk's social network X and Microsoft's LinkedIn filed their appeals with a first instance tax court after mid-July, when the deadline for responding to a tax assessment notice issued by Italy's Revenue Agency in March passed. According to several experts consulted by Reuters, the Italian approach could affect almost all companies, from airlines to supermarkets to publishers, who link access to free services on their sites to users' acceptance of profiling cookies. It could also eventually be extended across the EU where VAT is a harmonised tax. In a statement to Reuters, Meta said that it had cooperated "fully with the authorities on our obligations under EU and local law". It added that the company "strongly disagrees with the idea that providing access to online platforms to users should be subject to VAT". LinkedIn said it had "nothing to share at this time". X did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. ROME SEEN SEEKING EU ADVISORY It is uncertain whether a full trial of the matter, which involves three levels of judgement and takes an average of 10 years, will go ahead. Following discussions with the three companies, Italy is preparing as a next step to seek an advisory opinion from the European Commission, the sources said. The Italian Revenue Agency will have to prepare specific questions, which the Economy Ministry will then send to the EU Commission's VAT Committee, which meets twice a year. Rome aims to submit its questions for the meeting scheduled to be held by early November, in order to receive the EU's comments in time for the following meeting in spring 2026. Italy's Economy Ministry and Revenue Agency declined to comment. The EU Commission's VAT Committee is an independent advisory group. While its assessment will be non-binding, a "No" could prompt Italy to halt the case and ultimately drop the criminal investigation by Italian prosecutors, according to the sources. The dispute is one of several between Europeans and U.S. Big Tech. On July 11 Reuters exclusively reported that Meta would not be tweaking its pay-or-consent model further despite the risk of EU fines. According to a Financial Times report on July 17, the European Commission has stalled one of its investigations into Musk's platform X for breaching its digital transparency rules while it seeks to conclude trade talks with the U.S.
Reuters
21-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Exclusive: Meta, X and LinkedIn appeal unprecedented VAT claim by Italy
MILAN, July 21 (Reuters) - U.S. tech giants Meta (META.O), opens new tab, X and LinkedIn have lodged an appeal against an unprecedented VAT claim by Italy that could influence tax policy across the 27-nation European Union, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday. This is the first time that Italy has failed to reach a settlement agreement after bringing tax cases against tech companies, resulting in a fully-fledged judicial tax trial being launched. According to the sources, this came about because the case went beyond agreeing on a settlement figure and sought to establish a broader approach focused on how social networks provide access to their services. Italian tax authorities argue that free user registrations with X, LinkedIn and Meta platforms should be seen as taxable transactions as they imply the exchange of a membership account in return for a user's personal data. The issue is especially sensitive given wider trade tensions between the EU and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Italy is claiming 887.6 million euros ($1.03 billion) from Meta, 12.5 million euros from X and around 140 million euros from LinkedIn. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Elon Musk's social network X and Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab LinkedIn filed their appeals with a first instance tax court after mid-July, when the deadline for responding to a tax assessment notice issued by Italy's Revenue Agency in March passed. According to several experts consulted by Reuters, the Italian approach could affect almost all companies, from airlines to supermarkets to publishers, who link access to free services on their sites to users' acceptance of profiling cookies. It could also eventually be extended across the EU where VAT is a harmonised tax. In a statement to Reuters, Meta said that it had cooperated "fully with the authorities on our obligations under EU and local law". It added that the company "strongly disagrees with the idea that providing access to online platforms to users should be subject to VAT". LinkedIn said it had "nothing to share at this time". X did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. It is uncertain whether a full trial of the matter, which involves three levels of judgement and takes an average of 10 years, will go ahead. Following discussions with the three companies, Italy is preparing as a next step to seek an advisory opinion from the European Commission, the sources said. The Italian Revenue Agency will have to prepare specific questions, which the Economy Ministry will then send to the EU Commission's VAT Committee, which meets twice a year. Rome aims to submit its questions for the meeting scheduled to be held by early November, in order to receive the EU's comments in time for the following meeting in spring 2026. Italy's Economy Ministry and Revenue Agency declined to comment. The EU Commission's VAT Committee is an independent advisory group. While its assessment will be non-binding, a "No" could prompt Italy to halt the case and ultimately drop the criminal investigation by Italian prosecutors, according to the sources. The dispute is one of several between Europeans and U.S. Big Tech. On July 11 Reuters exclusively reported that Meta would not be tweaking its pay-or-consent model further despite the risk of EU fines. According to a Financial Times report on July 17, the European Commission has stalled one of its investigations into Musk's platform X for breaching its digital transparency rules while it seeks to conclude trade talks with the U.S. ($1 = 0.8588 euros)
The Verge
17-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Substack wants to reinvent the wheel.
Substack wants to reinvent the wheel. In recent years the newsletter platform has tried to expand to micro-blogging, TikTokers, and full websites. Now the company is inching towards something its leadership has long criticized: advertising and social networks.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Should You Buy Meta Platforms Stock Before July 30?
More than 3.4 billion people use Meta Platforms' social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp every day. Meta is using artificial intelligence (AI) to keep those users engaged, which could be a major tailwind for its revenue over time. Meta is scheduled to release its financial results for the second quarter of 2025 on July 30, and all signs point to another strong report. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is the parent company of popular social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It has also become a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) race thanks to its Llama family of large language models (LLMs), which are among the best in the industry. Meta's operating performance has been incredibly strong over the past year, thanks partly to its investments in AI, so its stock is unsurprisingly trading near a record high. The company is scheduled to release its financial results for the second quarter of 2025 (ended June 30) on July 30, and management's guidance points to another strong report. Should you buy Meta stock before the end of the month? Meta has become a top destination for advertisers who want to reach the largest possible audience, because over 3.4 billion people use its social media platforms every day. The more users Meta attracts, the more money it makes from selling advertising slots to businesses. But the company can also generate more ad dollars by keeping existing users online for longer periods of time, which is where AI comes in. Meta developed an AI algorithm that learns what content each user likes to see, and then shows them more of it to keep them engaged. During a conference call with investors for the first quarter of 2025 (ended March 31), CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that AI-driven content recommendations led to a 6% increase in the amount of time users spent on Instagram over the previous six months, and a 7% increase for Facebook, so this strategy is working extremely well. Developing new features is another way to keep users coming back. In 2023, Meta launched its chatbot, Meta AI, which is accessible through all of its existing social media apps. It's powered by the company's latest Llama LLMs, making it highly proficient at answering questions on a variety of topics, and even generating images. At the end of Q1 2025, Meta AI had almost 1 billion monthly active users, which was an incredible achievement after less than two years on the market. In June, Meta also acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI for $14.3 billion to bolster its AI ambitions. Scale AI is a specialist at turning raw data into training data, which accelerates the pace at which AI models get "smarter," and it has an impressive list of customers that includes Microsoft and ChatGPT creator OpenAI. By backing Scale AI, Meta will have an opportunity to tap into top-tier talent and rapidly improve its data infrastructure. Scale AI's founder, Alexandr Wang, already agreed to join the social media giant as part of the deal. Meta generated $42.3 billion in total revenue during Q1 2025, which was a 16% increase from the year-ago period. The company also delivered $6.43 in earnings per share (EPS), which was up by a whopping 37%. According to management's guidance, Meta's revenue likely came in somewhere between $42.5 billion and $45.5 billion during the second quarter. The high end of that range would represent steady year-over-year growth of over 16%. The company didn't offer an earnings forecast, but according to Wall Street's consensus estimate (provided by Yahoo! Finance), its EPS could come in at around $5.84. That would be a more modest increase of around 13%, likely because of the company's substantial investments in AI. On that note, investors should look out for an update to Meta's annual capital expenditures (capex) forecast on July 30. In Q1, the company told investors that it planned to spend between $64 billion and $72 billion on AI data center infrastructure and chips this year, which was up from its previous estimate of between $60 billion and $65 billion. This spending may dent Meta's earnings power in the short term, but the hope is that it will lead to accelerated growth at the top and bottom line in the future as the enormous AI investments pay off. If Meta issues another increase to its capex forecast on July 30, it could be a sign of management's confidence in AI's ability to continue transforming its business for the better. Meta stock might be cheap right now, even though it's trading near an all-time high. Its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 28.3 as of this writing (July 10), so it's notably cheaper than the Nasdaq-100 index, which trades at a P/E ratio of 32.3. Moreover, Meta is the second-cheapest stock in the "Magnificent Seven," which is a group of technology leaders that have turned their attention to the AI race. Meta's success is years in the making, so I don't think one quarterly report will change the company's trajectory. Its stock could be a great buy ahead of July 30 because of its attractive valuation and the company's presence in the AI space, regardless of its upcoming second-quarter report. As long as investors buy Meta stock with a plan to hold it for the long term -- preferably for five years or more -- buying it any time this month will likely yield solid results over time. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $425,583!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $40,324!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $674,432!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join , and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy Meta Platforms Stock Before July 30? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
