The Competition and Market Authority has closed the investigation, launched in April 2018 against Facebook Ireland Ltd. and its parent company Facebook Inc. for alleged violations of articles 21 and 22 of the consumer code, requiring the company a total fine of 10 million euros.
The Authority has ascertained that the most famous social network in the world has "deceptively induced consumer users to register on the Facebook platform, by not informing them adequately and immediately, during the account activation phase, of the collection activity, with commercial intent, of data provided by them, and, more generally, of the remunerative purposes underlying the provision of the social network service, emphasizing only its free use”, as stated in the official press release released by the Antitrust.
Furthermore, according to the Antitrust, Facebook has implemented, in violation of articles 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code, "an aggressive practice" as it has exercised undue influence on registered consumers, whose data, without express and prior consent, have been transmitted by Facebook to third party websites/apps, and vice versa, for commercial purposes.
The president of Codacons, Carlo Rienzi, intervened to comment on the decision: "In recent months we had reported through a series of complaints to the Antitrust possible violations in the use of users' personal data by Facebook and lack of transparency by the social network in the information provided to users. Once again our doubts prove to be well founded and the Antitrust has fully recognized the legitimacy of the Codacons complaints regarding the use of consumers' personal data for commercial purposes without having obtained the users' express consent. We will now evaluate any compensation actions to be taken in favor of all Italian citizens registered on Facebook, whose rights have been harmed by the incorrect practices implemented by the social network. It is our victory on all fronts”.
