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from the they-can-still-screw-over-the-rest-of-the-world dept.
Fraud, scams, and "unfair" terms and conditions all need to be cleaned up on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, the European Commission has said—warning the US firms that any failure to comply with the order will lead to sanctions.
It comes after the trio of free content ad networks were put on notice in November last year, when Brussels' officials asked the companies to address two areas of concern.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google—all of which are routinely blasted by regulators and lawmakers in Europe—have one month to submit proposals for how they plan to comply with the EU's demands. If their offers come up short against the bloc's regulatory framework, then consumer authorities could threaten to take enforcement action, the commission said.
"Given the growing importance of online social networks it is time to make sure that our strong EU rules, that are there to protect consumers from unfair practices, are complied with in this sector," said Brussels' justice commissioner, Vera Jourová.
"It is not acceptable that EU consumers can only call on a court in California to resolve a dispute. Nor can we accept that users are deprived of their right to withdraw from an online purchase. Social media companies also need to take more responsibility in addressing scams and fraud happening on their platforms."
The commission—citing the Unfair Contract Terms Directive—wants the companies' terms of service to "be brought into conformity with European consumer law."
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday March 21 2017, @02:12AM (5 children)
Wait, what? Runaway, have you gone native?!? Praising a union of socialist democracies. wow. Well, you did say "O'Bummer".
I agree the Democrats didn't do enough. Obamacare didn't do anything to directly address the high costs of medical care. Price gouging on things such as Daraprim and EpiPens is possible thanks in large part to intellectual property law, which reduces competition. Then, what did they do to clean up Wall St.? They did some things, but lots more should have been done. Like, why weren't homeowners bailed out better, why did they try to go through those thieving bankers, instead of doing it directly? All the fraud that went on resulted in just one prison term, for Madoff. Most of all, where are the jobs?
Who does the government work for, the people, or large corporate interests? You'd think that it'd be the people, when the so-called party of the people, the Democrats, are in charge.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @05:42AM
Obama never intended to make health care cost less. His intent was to force poor people to have insurance. Many of the angry people were expecting lower costs, not coverage for the poor. Obama also mandated lots of features, causing prices to rise and causing many insurance plans to be terminated.
I'll grant that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was nice. With that and net neutrality, Obama was right twice, just like a stopped clock.
The banks are tough. Fundamentally, they are too big and the executives have incentives to misbehave. When a gamble turns out OK, they profit. When a gamble goes bad, we bail them out, which is kind of necessary because banks are large enough (and interconnected even) that bank failure can fuck with the national economy. It's like they hold our economy hostage. Also, they were paying Hillary.
I would have been pissed at a better bailout for homeowners. Those homeowners were frequently dishonest about income and home value, and they were living well beyond their means in lovely houses. Meanwhile, I was dutifully saving so that I could pay 20% down and have plenty left over for an emergency fund. That crash meant I could get a better house, and I did.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @08:19AM (3 children)
Don't be deceived, the EU is just another corporatist shit-show.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 21 2017, @09:05AM (2 children)
Yeah, but the governments have this one weird trick to fool the citizens: Whenever they want to do something that is not in the interest of the people, the meet in Brussels to decide it, and then blame the EU for the regulations. While whenever the EU decides something positive, they use the fact that this has to be put in national right to (a) defer it to the latest moment possible (and sometimes further), and (b) claim the positive things for themselves (after all, they made the national laws implementing that, and the people have long forgotten that the EU demanded it, if they ever noticed).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 21 2017, @09:06AM
Errr … s/in national right/in national law/
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by lx on Tuesday March 21 2017, @10:29AM
That is mostly the MO of the UK government, and the fools ended up believing their own lies to the point of leaving the EU thereby giving up that advantage.