Antitrust: WhatsApp in the viewfinder to transfer the data to Facebook – The Tyrrhenian sea

The Competition Authority and the Market has started two processes, instructors vis-à-vis of WhatsApp Inc. for alleged violations of the Code of Consumption. It reads in a note by the Antitrust authority. A first procedure is to ascertain if the american society has forced users to accept the new contractual terms, in particular the sharing of their personal data with Facebook. The other procedure is directed to ascertain the unfair nature of certain clauses.

Data from WhattsApp to Fb, the Guarantor of privacy: common Action at European level” The Competition Authority and the Market opens up a dual-appraisal, even on unfair terms. In September he was already moved to the Garante for personal data. In the center is a new policy imposed to the users of the chat green. We heard from the President, Antonello Sorointervista Anna Zippel

The first process – explains the note of Authority – is designed to ensure that the american society has forced users of WhatsApp Messenger to fully accept the new contractual terms, in particular the sharing of their personal data with Facebook, making them believe, with a message visible when you open the application, which would have been otherwise unable to continue in the use of the application itself.

“The conditioning effect – according to the Antitrust authority – has, moreover, strengthened by the prespuntatura affixed to the option ‘Facebook’ on a screen of the second level at which the user accessed, by the main message, using the special link”. The other procedure of investigation is directed to ascertain the unfair nature of certain clauses in the ‘Terms of use’ WhatsApp Messenger concerning, in particular, the right of unilateral changes of the contract by the company, the right of withdrawal is determined solely for the professional, the exclusions and limitations of liability in its favor, the unjustified interruptions of the service, the choice of jurisdiction on disputes which, today, is established exclusively in american Courts.

Codacons, ready to class action lawsuits against WhatsApp If they are make sure the offences hypothesized by the Antitrust authority, the Codacons launch a class action against WhatsApp, aimed to give Italian users the compensation for the infringement of the rights of consumers. This was stated by the association, commenting on the two cases open against the american company for alleged violations of the Code of Consumption.

“If the Authority is to ascertain the violation of the regulations on management of personal information and the unfair nature of certain clauses in the ‘Terms of use’ WhatsApp Messenger, it would be obvious the infringement of the rights of consumers who use the service – says the president Carlo Rienzi – This would pave the way for a possible class acton of the Codacons, which aims to get users who have installed WhatsApp to the compensation of the damage suffered, in the appropriate legal channels”.