Facebook faces €5mn fine in Italy

The Italian competition authority, Autorita’ Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) is intending to fine Facebook €5 million for ignoring its previous ruling.

Having already been fined €10 million in December 2018 for violating the country’s consumer code, the AGCM has followed up with another seven figure-fine for ‘non-compliance’. Facebook has seeming not made amends for the violations of yesteryear, by adequately informing the user of data collection, and will face another investigation.

The new investigation, which has been confirmed by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, will potentially fine Facebook an additional €5 million.

The issue which is at the crux of this saga for Facebook is ultimately one of transparency. While Facebook does not charge users for its services, the Italian competition regulator does not feel the social media giant is doing enough to make its users aware of how personal data is collected, store and analysed for commercial means.

Although Facebook removed the ‘it’s free and always will be’ tag from the website under orders from the regulator, it is now believed the social media giant failed to ‘adequately and immediately’ inform users on the data collection ambitions. Facebook also failed to publish the amending statement on the platform.

In addition to a €5 million fine, Facebook will have to publish an amending statement on the homepage of its website, the app and the personal page of each registered Italian user, should the proceedings find Facebook guilty.

While it will surprise few Facebook is finding itself in another spot of bother when it comes to transparency and honesty with its users, it is quite surprising the social media simply ignored the demands of the regulator. Although it is far from a good corporate citizen, it seems highly unusual the team simply didn’t pay attention to the Italian regulator in the first place.