The Facebook logo is displayed in Hanover, Germany on June 12, 2018 | Alexander Koerner/Getty Images Facebook to cave to EU pressure after row over political ad rules EU institutions and parties had complained that social media giant’s political advertising rules would hamper election campaigning.

In a political standoff between European lawmakers and Facebook, the social networking giant has blinked first.

After vocal complaints from the EU's three main institutions that the company's new political advertising rules will hamper region-wide campaigning, Facebook is expected to allow the European Parliament and EU political groups to buy social media ads across the 28-country bloc.

While no deal has yet been confirmed, Facebook's chief global lobbyist told Antonio Tajani, president of the Parliament, that these EU groups would likely be granted permission to buy political ads across the region during the electoral campaign, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

“Following a phone call between Antonio Tajani and Nick Clegg, in which Antonio Tajani asked Facebook to spare the institutions, groups and European political parties from the new rule, at least for the electoral period, Facebook has replied positively. A procedure will be foreseen for each of the three categories from April 25 to May 26,” said Parliament spokesperson Jaume Duch.

Facebook's backtracking — it had initially refused to greenlight such regional campaigning — follows widespread criticism of the company's new advertising rules, which came into force this week and require all political marketers to register in the country where they want to buy advertising as part of the company's efforts to limit foreign influence in the European election.

It also highlights how reliant political groups and institutions have become on the world's largest social network which, despite a recent spate of scandals, remains the go-to source for digital campaigns when politicians want to get their message across to potential voters.

"Candidates and political groups need Facebook to reach the public," said Liz Carolan, a social media expert who has analyzed the digital campaigns of several recent European elections and referendums. "Europe is different than the U.S. where these rules were developed. Facebook hasn't thought this through sufficiently."

New advertising rules

As part of the political advertising changes, Facebook had imposed stricter geographical limits that force buyers to provide a physical address, telephone number and credit card, among other requirements, before purchasing political or issue-based advertising linked to hot-button topics like immigration.

Earlier Thursday, all the major European political parties doubled down on their criticism of Facebook's initial restrictions with an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, obtained by POLITICO.

"Facebook is treating the European single market as divisible international components. That goes against European law" — Stephen Weatherill, Oxford professor

"We expect Facebook to change its rules within a matter of days to be in compliance with EU rules," said the letter, dated April 18. "We will not accept being limited to national public spheres in a common Europe."

The letter was signed by the leaders of the European People's Party, the Party of European Socialists, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and the European Green Party, among others.

Asked if the company would respond to the criticism, a Facebook representative said: "We have nothing new to share at the moment, but will be in touch if that changes."

In the run-up to the new rules, the company's executives held several meetings with EU groups, as well as national electoral experts, and acknowledged that its focus on member states could lead to difficulties for EU-wide campaigning, according to several people who attended those meetings.

“This is a situation where a private entity, of enormous size and influence, came up in a very amateurish way with new things to comply with only a few days before the deadline,” said Sybren Kooistra, campaign manager for the European Greens.

The company's approach also differs from that of Twitter, which outlined its own political advertising limits in February that permit EU groups and institutions to buy political ads across the region, as long as they have been certified by the social network as legitimate political actors.

Facebook's stance, if unchanged, may eventually lead to legal trouble.

Stephen Weatherill, a professor of European law at the University of Oxford, said that a number of EU treaties governed the European election process, and that Brussels-based institutions have a legitimate right over the upcoming vote in May, which has been dismissed by Facebook's focus on member states. He added that the social network may have breached EU law by imposing unfair restrictions on the bloc's internal single market.

"Facebook is treating the European single market as divisible international components," he said. "That goes against European law."

If you can't beat them, join them

Despite the potential illegality of Facebook's new advertising rules, Europe's political groups — many of which have spent months planning digital campaign strategies reliant on the social network — had been looking for ways to work within the restrictions.

With time running out to reach voters, several EU political groups said that they would likely have to turn to consultants in each European country to buy ads on their behalf if Facebook's rules don't change. One Parliament insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told POLITICO that such a workaround — though legal — would not help increase transparency around the election because unknown third-party groups would end up buying ads on behalf of the EU-wide political groups.

"This is an example of one large social media platform really having too significant of a presence within the market," said Dara Murphy, the European People's Party's vice president and campaign director, and a signatory of the letter to Zuckerberg. "That will take time to change, but will have to be looked at by the European institutions" in the next term.

Others, though, are still trying to figure out how to work with the new rules.

Didrik de Schaetzen, a spokesman for ALDE, said that his political group has budgeted roughly €45,000 for social media advertising linked to May's election, including the hiring of two additional staffers to help their existing social media team. That represents roughly 15 percent of the group's overall budget for the upcoming election.

"Facebook was by far the main media we had planned to use," he said.