Once again the greats of the Web end up under the Antitrust lens. The competition guarantor has opened several investigations against Google and Apple but also of dropbox for cloud computing services. A press release announces it.
Google (for the Google Drive service), Apple (for the iCloud service) and Dropbox, are each affected "by a proceeding for alleged unfair commercial practices and/or violations of the Consumer Rights Directive and by one for alleged unfair terms included in the contractual conditions".
Le unfair business practices essentially concern the accumulation of data without adequate information to consumers. In the case of Google and Apple is under observation "the failure or inadequate indication, in the presentation of the service, of the activity of collection and use for commercial purposes of the data provided by the user and the possible undue conditioning towards consumers, who, in order to use the cloud storage, they would not be in a position to express their consent to the operator to the collection and use of information concerning them for commercial purposes”, writes the Antitrust.
Same complaints also for dropbox, which - in addition - is accused "of having failed to provide information on the conditions, terms and procedures for withdrawing from the contract and for exercising the right of withdrawal in a clear and immediately accessible manner". Again: Dropbox would not allow "the easy use of out-of-court dispute settlement mechanisms, to which the professional is subject, with the necessary information to access them".
The other proceedings opened for unfair terms on the other hand, they concern, in particular, “the broad faculty – on the part of the operator – to suspend and interrupt the service; the exemption from liability even in the event of loss of documents stored in the user's cloud space; the possibility of unilateral modification of the contractual conditions; the prevalence of the English version of the text of the contract over the Italian one".
