The article is quite hard to read. I think it comes down to this: Meta has been arguing that its Terms of Service are enough consent for data collection. European courts disagree: consent has to be explicitly given. Meta has been ignoring this ruling for 5 years now, without much consequence. Now, the EU is starting to clamp down harder - coincidentally just a few weeks before Meta will introduce a new system. In this new system users will get a choice to either consent (explicitly), or pay to use the service without data collection consent. Data privacy advocates believe this would still be illegal. However - personal opinion, not mentioned in the article - this will likely take many more years before it goes to court, let alone before it is enforced. In other words: they keep getting away with it.