{"id":7585,"date":"2017-07-26T00:39:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T00:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/facebook-twitter-google-warned-over-eu-consumer-rights.html"},"modified":"2017-07-26T00:39:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T00:39:10","slug":"facebook-twitter-google-warned-over-eu-consumer-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/facebook-twitter-google-warned-over-eu-consumer-rights.html","title":{"rendered":"Facebook, Twitter, Google warned over EU consumer rights"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

U.S. social media giants have been warned by Europe\u2019s consumer rights commissioner that she\u2019s \u00a0running out of patience with their failure to comply with the region\u2019s consumer protection standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am becoming very impatient,\u201d said commissioner V\u011bra Jourov\u00e1, speaking at a press briefing today in Brussels.\u00a0\u201cIn our opinion there are in the terms and conditions of these American companies several very unfavorable conditions for the EU consumer. And if they want to make big business using the benefit of operating in the European market they have to be compliant with the EU consumer protection standards and rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

EU regulators have been\u00a0investigating complaints about unfair terms and conditions pertaining to platforms operated by Facebook, Twitter and Google since last year.<\/p>\n

In March<\/a> the Commission and national consumer protection authorities gave the three tech giants a month to fix the problems they had identified \u2014 which included issues such as depriving consumers of their right to take a company to court in their own country; and requiring consumers waive mandatory rights, such as their right to withdraw from an online purchase.<\/p>\n

Late yesterday, Reuters<\/a> reported that regulatory pressure is now being cranked up on the three, after the proposals they have submitted so far have not been considered sufficient to bring them into compliance. The Commission requested amended proposals be submitted by July 20, and implemented by the end of September.<\/p>\n

Today, Jourov\u00e1 said the September deadline will be the last chance for the companies to satisfy EU regulators \u2014 or face enforcement action from Member States\u2019 consumer protection authorities. This could include fines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe received two answers out of three \u2014 one company asked for more time for the response,\u201d noted Jourov\u00e1 today. \u201cWhat we want them to do is to make their terms and conditions to be in full compliance with the high European standards of consumer protection. That\u2019s why we asked them for concrete proposals, we set a deadline, and we will wait for the last answer and we will assess and analyze whether this is sufficient for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn case this dialogue does not work we will have to help the national enforcers to launch the co-ordinated action,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

A Facebook spokesperson told us it believes it does already comply with EU law though also recognizes the need to improve its TCs to make them easier to understand, adding that it is working to assuage regulators\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment, saying the company has nothing to share at this stage.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing Google had not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Giving an example of one of the conditions that EU regulators are taking issue with,\u00a0Jourov\u00e1 said: \u201cI think we can all agree that it\u2019s not acceptable to ask consumers to go to court in California if they have a problem.\u201d (According to Reuters<\/a> this is one of the sticking points in the dialogue thus far.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso companies have limited their own liability towards consumers in a way unacceptable under the EU law,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd in the future they also need to better protect consumers from illegal commercial practices of traders using their platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are intensively working on making the consumers safer when purchasing from the platforms,\u201d she added. \u201cWe want to make sure that everybody understands that what applies offline it also has to apply for online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jourov\u00e1 also said the EC is also looking closely at the shopping experience for consumers on tech platforms \u2014 as part of a retesting review it\u2019s undertaking to ensure current consumer protection legislation is up to date with digital developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that when you go to buy something from online platform you know exactly who you buy from \u2014 who is the other side of the contract. So we will be looking into the possibility of introducing more transparency for online shopping,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

This story was updated to include responses to requests for comment from Facebook and Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/PACYE0M0PQs\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. social media giants have been warned by Europe\u2019s consumer rights commissioner that she\u2019s \u00a0running out of patience with their failure to comply with the region\u2019s consumer protection standards. \u201cI <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-7585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t