Facebook Could Face EU Sanctions If It Doesn't Change Its TOS (theverge.com)

According to Reuters, Facebook could face sanctions for not complying with the European Union's consumer rules. "Back in February, the company was told to change its users terms and conditions to recently updated EU standards, but it has yet to do so," The Verge reports. From the report: In February, Facebook changed its terms of service, but to EU officials, it wasn't enough. "While Google's latest proposals appear to be in line with the requests made by consumer authorities, Facebook and, more significantly, Twitter, have only partially addressed important issues about their liability and about how users are informed of possible content removal or contract termination," the European Commission stated in a press release at the time.

As detailed back in February, authorities want Facebook to better protect consumers' rights, including the ability to withdraw from an online purchase, sue in Europe and not in California where Facebook is based. The EU also wants more consumer-friendly rules around the social media platform's legal liability when its service performs poorly. According to Reuters, Facebook's non-compliance contrasts with Airbnb's obedience, as the rental platform adjusted its terms of service recently after being asked to do so back in July. Airbnb is now more transparent about pricing details and has better terms for consumers using its platform in the EU.

Comments

EU needs to knock FB TFO

[Anonymous Coward]

They're big enough to follow the law or GTFO, you go EU!

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[serviscope_minor]

Honestly I'm not really sure I can root for either side.

That's cos you're a dumbass, just saying.

But the EU is AT LEAST equal in how terrible it is.

No it isn't.

Not sure there's actually an acceptable "winner" in this.

The EU.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[Anonymous Coward]

In what way is EU terrible?

Remember that Putin is investing a lot in creating animosity towards EU to make more countries leave.
Just saying that EU is terrible or "undemocratic" isn't going to fly. You'll have to go into specifics if you don't want to be disregarded as just another Putinbot.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[serviscope_minor]

if you don't want to be disregarded as just another Putinbot.

He's not a putinbot, he's been here for donkeys years. He is however a useful idiot.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[moronoxyd]

Sorry? Did you have an actual argument?

Do you have an actual argument?

To chose a winner here you have to look at where each party stands on the issue at hand. Saying that FB is horrible in general and that the EU is even worse in general doesn't help in regards to this specific case.

The EU wants FB to follow the law of the land when doing business in the EU. FB doesn't want to change it's TOS to conform to the law.
The laws in question strengthen consumer rights and consumer protections.

So for me, the winner in this case is clearly the EU.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[Zocalo]

The fact that all the people with actual power are unelected and unaccountable.

Oh, please, the EU has not been the EEC for literally a few decades now. The people within the EU this misinformation is generally referring to are the EU's equivalent of high-level civil servants, you know, those people that are not typically elected by the general public in every single democracy, including the UK and US where this issue is particularly relevant right now. They are, however, is appointed by elected representatives - MEPs in the case of the EU, Senate confirmation hearings in the case of the US and (in theory at least) are managed by and report into elected representatives, albeit with some exceptions, like maintaining at least a semblence of separation between legislature and judiciary. Yes, the politicians will tend to appoint and promote civil servants that lean the same way politically that they do, but you do get to choose your politicians, so you reap what you sow - case in point, a certain judge aspiring to the Supreme Court in the US right now. The EU also has a backstop; the civil servants can (and do) propose some ridiculous things, but ultimately those things also need the assent of the elected MEPs before they can become legislation, which is more than can be said for some of the mandarins in the UK and US' civil service.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[Megol]

So you are an idiot. Doing work in the EU, targeting EU citizens while not following EU law that includes the protection* of individual rights to a degree the US will never reach** means one will get punished according to EU law. If the main company then is based in the EU or not isn't relevant.

(* sometimes to IMHO extremes as seen with the right-to-be-forgotten thing)
(** in some cases perhaps that's good, in most I think not)

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[cheesybagel]

No. In the EU the organ with the most power is the Council of Ministers, which has the Prime-Minister (or equivalent chief of the executive) of each country in the EU. They can both create laws, enact them, and veto them. The second organ with the most power is the pseudo-executive branch of the EU which is the European Comission. It has a President and a bunch of commissioners for different branches of the economy. The have the power to create and enact laws. They used to be directly chosen by the Council of Ministers. There is now a confirmation vote in the European Parliament but it is mostly for show. Then there is the European Parliament, with directly elected MEPs, which only has a right to veto.

So it's closer to the USSR's system where locally appointed political leaders elected the regional leaders, then in turn selected the national leader. This kind of political formation is hardly new, it dates back at least to the Mongol Empire. It creates a more stable, albeit more corrupt system.

There were attempts to make the EU a Federation, but rather interestingly, the UK was the leading opponent against it. They never wanted it to go past a confederation. Where the national governments have the most to say. So the European Parliament is mostly toothless.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[Zocalo]

Mostly different groups of people to the civil servants I was mostly talking about - the EC being the exception - , but lets break your list down:

Council of Ministers - duly elected leaders of each member state, chosen by the preferred electoral system of each individual country.
European Comission - not directly elected, but confirmed by the elected European Parliament (MEPs) even mostly for show, as I noted.
European Parliament - as we both noted, elected by those EU citizens who can be bothered to do so, and with power of veto over the EC, which they can and do use. This is, in effect, a similar relationship to the UK's Houses of Commons and Lords, so not really something the UK is in a position to scream and shout about being "undemocratic" if they're not also saying the same about the Lords (which many are, to be fair).

No, it's definitely not perfect, but it's somewhat ironic that the country doing the most bitching and moaning about it is also the same one that has used its veto to block many of the attempts to improve it. That's one hidden benefit to Brexit for the EU's federalists at least; once the UK's boat anchor is removed it might at least be a bit easier for the remaining 27 countries to move forwards - assuming they can successfully marginalise those in other governments that are toying with similar notions, anyway.

Re:EU needs to knock FB TFO

[thegarbz]

If you say so.

To me, it's like saying "Do you want the shit sandwich? Or the shit hoagie?"

The sandwich! Why the fuck would you chose the hoagie. Hoagies are big and typically loaded with ingredients. In a sandwich you could barely get a table spoon of shit in it, on the hoagie you get get your entire dog's previous night's dinner.

Re:2019

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I mean, sure, Facebook doesn't have to do business with the EU. It'll tank their stock price to give up their second most valuable market, but it's up to them.

Re: 2019

[Misagon]

You'd be surprised about how many things you might think are US but which have European origin.
Just in the city where I live, we have Spotify, Skype, Mojang, development centres for HTC, Sony and Huawei, and the bulk of Oracle's Java development. MySQL is an hour away.

As to music: A few blocks from where I live is an music studio, operated by Max Martin who produced Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry among others... i.e. the most successful US pop artists of the last decade. Made in Europe.

And yeah, the WWW was developed at CERN. Guess what the E stands for.

Re: 2019

[DNS-and-BIND]

Far too many people think that "the internet" means "the WWW" and get the idea that the Americans selfishly took credit for it.

The internet was a better place before Europe inflicted us with the WWW.