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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: 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.