Yahoo Finance EU warns Facebook of fines for 'misleading' terms of service
The EU has doubled down on its regulatory assault against Silicon Valley's tech giants, after declaring it was growing "impatient" with Facebook over its misleading terms of service.
In a statement, EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourová said: "My patience has reached its limit. It is now time for action and no more promises."
Speaking just hours after the EC said it was studying whether Amazon's use of data collected from third-party vendors on its service raised competition concerns, she said she would call on authorities across the 28-country bloc to act quickly to fine Facebook if it fails to comply by the end of the year.
Facebook has been accused of failing to update "misleading" terms and conditions by December to comply with European rules.
The EU wants Facebook to better protect European consumers’ rights and make it clearer exactly how their data is being used.
They also want users to be better informed about content removal or contract termination. The changes also include giving them the ability to withdraw from online purchases and allow them to sue in Europe rather than California.
Facebook made some adjustments to its terms in February but EU officials say the changes didn't go far enough.
For instance, Facebook now tells consumers that their data and content is used only to improve their overall "experience" and does not mention that the company uses it for commercial purposes.
"While Facebook assured me to finally adapt any remaining misleading terms of services by December, this has been ongoing for too long. I want Facebook to be extremely clear to its users about how their service operates and makes money,” Ms Jourová said.
“Not many people know that Facebook has made available their data to third parties or that for instance it holds full copyright about any picture or content you put on it.”
I appreciate #Facebook willingness to work with us and #consumer authorities to solve all the issues by December this year.
— Věra Jourová (@VeraJourova) September 20, 2018
Facebook was slapped with a £500,000 fine earlier this year for the role it played in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of 87m users was harvested for political purposes earlier this year.
Since then, the company has done little to escape scrutiny from EU politicians and regulators, with many predicting that this was the first of many fines as the Information Commissioner’s Office continues to investigate other aspects of Facebook’s data sharing such as an advertising service that combined third party data with the likes of credit check giant Experian, among others.
Facebook's slowness to fix problems on its site led Prime Minister Theresa May to accuse the company of "profiting from child trafficking", warning today that people smugglers were advertising “travel agent-style” services online to migrants.
Mrs May accused Facebook and other social media companies of failing to tackle the problem because of how easy it was for trafficking gangs to post convincing advertisements online without them being removed.
Other tech companies have been approached to change their terms of service. Ms Jourová applauded online holiday rental company Airbnb this morning for committing to change its terms of three months after they were approached by European Commission.
