Because the Antitrust Authority still punishes Facebook
Facebook again in the crosshairs of the Antitrust, which imposed a fine of 7 million euros on the Zuckerberg-based company. According to the Agcm, the social media giant does not adequately inform its users on how it collects and uses data for business purposes
7 million euro tile for Facebook from the Agcm.
The Italian Antitrust Authority sanctioned Facebook Ireland Ltd. and its parent company Facebook Inc. for a total of € 7 million for failing to implement the provisions of the provision issued against them in November 2018 .
This was disclosed by the Antitrust which underlined that the Menlo Park group did not "comply with the warning to remove the incorrect practice on the use of user data and did not publish the corrective declaration requested by the Authority".
In fact, in November 2018, the authority had already fined the social platform of 10 million euros for unfair commercial practices, ordering it to adapt its practices.
Facebook appealed that decision, reducing it to € 5 million in early 2020, although the court broadly accepted the regulator's claims.
And last January the Agcm had issued a warning to the Zuckerberg company with the initiation of a non-compliance proceeding against Facebook. Warning to the wind therefore, since the platform does not
Meanwhile, the Menlo Park company replied that it acknowledged the fine but remained "pending the decision of the Council of State on the appeal we presented with respect to the initial order issued by the Authority".
All the details on the new sanction of the Italian authority against Facebook.
THE ANTITRUST FINE AT FACEBOOK
Today the Agcm has fined Facebook of 7 million euros for "misleading" data protection practices.
The Antitrust Authority has ascertained that the group “has not published the amending statement and have not ceased the ascertained incorrect practice. Even though the claim of gratuitousness has been eliminated when registering on the platform, immediate and clear information on the collection and use of user data for commercial purposes is still not provided ".
According to the Authority, this is information that the consumer needs to decide whether to join the service, in light of the economic value assumed for Facebook by the data transferred by the user, which constitute the consideration for the use of the service.
THE FINE OF 2018
The Agcm had already fined Facebook of 10 million euros in 2018, accusing it of unfair commercial practices. Facebook appealed that decision, reducing it to € 5 million in early 2020, although the court broadly accepted the regulator's claims.
In particular, with this decision, the Authority had ascertained that Facebook was misleading users to register on its platform by not informing them immediately and adequately – during the activation of the account – of the collection activity, with commercial intent, of data provided by them. And more generally, of the remunerative purposes underlying the service, emphasizing vice versa the gratuity.
In addition to sanctioning Facebook for 5 million euros, the Authority had prohibited the further dissemination of the deceptive practice and ordered the publication of an amendment statement on the homepage of the company website for Italy, on the Facebook app and on the personal page of each registered Italian user.
The second fine comes precisely because the US company ignored orders to change its practices as requested, the Italian regulator said.
THE SURVEYS OF THE ANTITRUST
Last January the Antitrust had issued a warning to Facebook with the launch of an investigation.
"This investigation has made it possible to ascertain that the two companies have not published the corrective declaration and have not ceased the ascertained incorrect practice: despite having eliminated the claim of gratuitousness when registering on the platform, an immediate and clear information on the collection and use of user data for commercial purposes ".
Hence today's fine of 7 million euros against the technological giant.
THE REPLICA OF FACEBOOK
"We take note of the announcement of the Antitrust Authority for Competition and the Market" replied a spokesman for Facebook on the Antitrust fine of 7 million euros. “But we await the decision of the Council of State on the appeal that we presented with respect to the initial provision issued by the Authority. Privacy protection is extremely important to us and we have already made a number of changes, including to our Terms of Use, to further clarify how we use data to provide our services and personalized advertising ”.
THE COMMENT OF FEDERCONSUMATORI
Meanwhile, applause from the consumer associations for the decision of the Agcm.
"Right and right the intervention of the Antitrust, we hope that this time Facebook will respond by eliminating the violations found". A Federconsumatori note reads about the fine imposed on Facebook. "We will monitor for this to happen, making ourselves available as of now to provide the Authority with support for any further actions it deems useful to take against the platform which, as we have seen, does not seem willing to comply with its obligations".
“The fines, however high, are not an adequate deterrent. In the event of a further violation, in fact, we will ask to proceed more decisively against the company ”, adds Federconsumatori.
AND THAT OF CODACONS
The 7 million euro fine imposed by the Antitrust on Facebook was also good for Codacons.
"The question of the commercial use of user data concerns all social networks, and citizens are not adequately informed when registering on these platforms, as confirmed by the Antitrust sanction", explained the president Carlo Rienzi. “To ensure informed choices for users, it is important that companies in the sector undertake to provide maximum transparency regarding the purpose of data collection and their destination. And in this sense, Codacons today asks for an urgent meeting with Facebook aimed at remedying the critical issues raised by the Authority, and improving the information provided to its members ”.
THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME FOR THE ZUCKERBERG SOCIAL NETWORK
As Politico recalled, Facebook already caught a similar fine in Hungary in late 2019. The country's competition authority fined it 1.2 billion Hungarian forints (3.6 million euros) for advertising. falsely its services as free on its landing page and help center.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/perche-antitrust-castiga-ancora-facebook/ on Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:47:55 +0000.