Sarah Jarvis
December 26, 2025
Meta Says CFPB Has Dropped Biden-Era Advertising Probe
2 min

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AI-made summary
- Meta Platforms Inc
- disclosed in a quarterly report that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has closed its investigation into the company's finance-related advertising practices
- The investigation, which began in October 2024, focused on Meta's alleged use of financial information from third parties for advertising and related user disclosures
- Meta stated it was informed of the closure on September 25, 2025
- The CFPB did not immediately comment, and Meta declined further remarks.
Meta Platforms Inc. said Thursday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has closed an investigation into its finance-related advertising practices, a disclosure that comes a year after the agency signaled it was considering a possible enforcement action.
Meta Platforms Inc. announced it won't face a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigation alleging violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act. (Eliot Blondet/Abaca/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images) Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said in a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was informed by the CFPB on Sept. 25 that the regulator had closed its investigation. Meta declined to comment beyond the regulatory filing, and the CFPB didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Meta had disclosed last October that the CFPB was investigating the tech giant's "advertising for financial products and services," and that agency staff had indicated they'd possibly recommend taking legal action against the company.
The action would have alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act based on Meta's "alleged receipt and use for advertising of financial information from third parties through certain advertising tools as well as our related user disclosures and controls," the company had said.
The CFPA prohibits unfair, deceptive and abusive conduct in connection with "offering or providing a consumer financial product or service." Although California-based Meta is one of the large technology companies often considered part of Big Tech, the CFPB's authority to enforce the CFPA is not limited strictly to banks and other traditional financial institutions.
Meta said at the time that it disagreed with the claims CFPB staff were considering.
The Trump administration has scaled back the CFPB's enforcement and regulatory activity, particularly in the nonbank sector. The administration has also said it wants to dramatically downsize the CFPB, an effort that has prompted an ongoing legal challenge from a federal labor union representing the agency's employees.
Although the administration has maintained in court filings that it will not and cannot unilaterally abolish the CFPB, White House budget chief and acting CFPB Director Russell Vought said earlier this month that work is underway to close it down and could succeed in the "next two or three months." Democratic lawmakers have since slammed the comments as a "brazen admission" and demanded an explanation.
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Sarah Jarvis
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