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Facebook was criticized by the consumer affairs officer of the European Commission, who warned that she was short of patience and said that the company had to make further changes to its terms of service before the end of the year. consumption rules.
The Commission also said today that Airbnb has agreed to make further changes to its ToS by December.
The EU's executive body has for nearly two years been whistling over the terms of service of technology platforms and social media that undermine consumers' rights.
In February, she warned a large number of companies to do more to respect consumer rights. In July, the Commission joined forces with European consumer authorities to push Airbnb to make changes.
At the same time, the Commission is pushing for an update to modernize the EU's consumption rules – and hopes to obtain the support of the European Parliament and the Member States, via the European Council, needed to reform the EU's consumer policy. EU law.
"I respect the work of national consumer authorities, but sometimes the powers they have at the national level are not sufficient for companies to cooperate effectively with them" tweeted Commissioner Vera Jourova today. "From where the #NewDealForConsumers we propose to strengthen their power and to have persuasive penalties."
Reuters reports that Twitter has also been warned by the Commission that it needs to make changes to ToS to comply with European consumer law.
The public denunciation by the EC of the giants of technology inevitably has a strategic political dimension, as it seeks to attract attention for its cause of reform and to gain support for the recasting of the rules.
Although it is also clear that social media giants have not yet done enough to comply with the EU's existing consumer rules.
At a press conference today, Jourova said that Airbnb's current conditions still deceive consumers because they are not clear enough about costs, while Facebook's terms are not not clear. clarify how user data is passed on to third parties.
She warned Facebook that she was "running out of patience", having been engaged in negotiations on the issue for almost two years now.
On Airbnb According to her, the company agreed to make additional changes before the end of the year so that consumers would be more aware of the total cost of staying at a host before they receive the purchase price.
"Following our call in July, Airbnb informed us that it agreed to improve price transparency – so that consumers could know the final price or additional costs, such as cleaning fees or local taxes. Airbnb will also make changes to the terms and conditions, for example to make it clear that consumers can use all available legal remedies and in particular their right to sue a host in case of personal injury or other damage ", a- she declared.
"EU consumers must have the same rights to sell and buy online and offline," said Jourova. "We did not come with specific legislation for online sales, but we've always said that offline rules must also apply to the online world. This is what we are doing now with Airbnb and Facebook, where we still see shortcomings in their contracts they use to deliver their services to EU consumers. "
Responding to his remarks today in a statement, a spokesman for Airbnb told us, "Airbnb is a community based on trust and transparency is a key element. Customers have always been aware of all fees, including service charges and taxes, before booking their stay, and we are delighted to work with CPC to make this even clearer for customers.
In the case of Facebook, the Commission wants greater transparency of its services on the main features of its services and its relations with third parties with whom it shares consumer data, stating that a clearer link must be established. between the actual supply of the service; the fact that the consumer data is the counterpart of the receipt of this service; and the commercial exploitation of data and user-generated content (by providing targeted advertising services to third parties).
Nor is he satisfied with Facebook's terms granting the company a perpetual license on user-generated content, even after a user has left Facebook, stating that this is unfair.
It also believes that the rights granted by Facebook on the content that users download are not sufficiently highlighted for consumers when they register.
In addition, she criticizes Facebook's conditions for failing to clearly define its obligations to delete user-generated content and / or suspend or terminate an account.
The Commission also reports the lack of an appeal option for consumers in some cases.
Nor is he happy that Facebook is giving itself the power to unilaterally change its terms of service, saying that this is contrary to EU consumer law, which identifies unfair terms that allow:the seller or supplier to modify the terms of the contract unilaterally without valid reason that is specified in the contract ".
Jourova said Facebook and Airbnb both had a deadline of 18 October to propose additional changes – which will then be assessed by the Commission and the acceptable ("fully functional") final implementation cooperation network by December and new compliant contracts in force before January.
In other remarks about Facebook, Jourova said his latest meeting with the company had been "constructive" but pointed to the Cambridge Analytica scandal as "a stark reminder of the lack of clarity on the use of personal data by Facebook. third parties like apps, games or quiz creators ".
"Few people know that Facebook has made their data available to third parties or that, for example, it holds full copyright on any image or content that you put after deleting your account "she said. many Facebook users who were "very surprised" to learn the rights his ToS grant him on user data.
"So we want Facebook to tell its users clearly how the service works and earns money. Facebook has nearly 380 million users in Europe and I'm waiting for Facebook to assume more responsibility.
"I also expect Facebook to be honest with those who go and try to understand all the consequences of using their services," she added. "I will not hide that I'm getting pretty impatient because we've been talking to Facebook for almost two years and I really do not want to see any progress, it's not enough for me, I want to see the results."
In response to Jourova's remarks, a Facebook spokesperson sent us the following statement:
People share their most precious moments on Facebook and we want our conditions to be clear and accessible to everyone. We updated Facebook's terms of use in May and included the vast majority of the changes proposed by the Consumer Protection Co-operation Network and the European Commission. Our terms are now much clearer about what is and is not allowed on Facebook and the options available to users. We are grateful to CPC and the Commission for their comments and will continue our close cooperation to understand any additional concerns and to make the appropriate updates.
At today's press conference, Jourova also referred to a coordinated sanctions regime for consumer rights violations to reinforce enforcement, saying the EU must impose "unified sanctions" (which she now has for the data). breaches of protection, thanks to the GDPR).
Unified sanctions are included in the new Consumer Commission agreement adopted in April – which is now on the table as a proposal to be considered by the other two EU institutions and (hopefully the Commission).
She said the proposal was "the package that should improve the enforcement of consumer rights in a very broad area", adding: "I hope that the European Parliament and the Member States will quickly adopt legislation or the position so that we have this done as soon as possible next spring ".
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