The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has filed a complaint against TikTok with the European Commission and the various consumer protection authorities across the EU, while consumer organisations in 15 countries have urged their national authorities to investigate the video sharing platform.

The BEUC believes that TikTok fails to protect its young users from hidden advertising and potentially harmful content, mainly highlighting the app’s branded hashtag challenges. These ‘challenges’ encourage users to create content related to specific products and are often set in motion via partnerships with influencers. The organisation also points to the ease of which users can stumble across inappropriate content while scrolling the app.

On TikTok’s ‘Terms of Service’, the BEUC says that some of the app’s terms are ‘unclear and ambiguous’, while being unfair to users. This unfairness extends to TikTok’s copyright terms, which allow the platform to use, distribute, and reproduce user content without any form of remuneration.

These ‘unfair’ terms are alleged to extend to TikTok’s ‘Virtual Item Policy’. The ‘Virtual Item’ feature enables users to purchase coins to use for virtual gifts to show their appreciation to people on livestreams. However, the BEUC claims that the feature contains “unfair terms and misleading practices”, especially around the fact that TikTok has given itself the right to modify the exchange rate between the coins and the gifts.

Finally, the BEUC takes issue with TikTok’s practices around the processing of personal data. The organisation believes that TikTok doesn’t make it clear what personal data it is collecting and does not provide any purpose or legal reasoning either. The BEUC has filed this particular part of its complaint as being a possible breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“In just a few years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps with millions of users across Europe. But TikTok is letting its users down by breaching their rights on a massive scale. We have discovered a whole series of consumer rights infringements and therefore filed a complaint against TikTok,” said Monique Goyens, Director General of the BEUC.

“Children love TikTok but the company fails to keep them protected. We do not want our youngest ones to be exposed to pervasive hidden advertising and unknowingly turned into billboards when they are just trying to have fun.

“Together with our members – consumer groups from across Europe – we urge authorities to take swift action. They must act now to make sure TikTok is a place where consumers, especially children, can enjoy themselves without being deprived of their rights.”

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The IDFA enables advertisers to track users via unique device ID numbers for better ad targeting. However, NOYB argues that, because tracking codes are placed on devices without consent, they are in breach of EU law.

“EU law protects our devices from external tracking,” said Stefano Rossetti, Privacy Lawyer at NOYB. “Tracking is only allowed if users explicitly consent to it. This very simple rule applies regardless of the tracking technology used. While Apple introduced functions in their browser to block cookies, it places similar codes in its phones, without any consent by the user. This is a clear breach of EU privacy laws.”

NOYB also acknowledges Apple’s plans to restrict the use of IDFA for third parties but says this doesn’t go far enough, as Apple will not impose the same restrictions on itself. Under the plans, a dialogue box will appear when first opening an app to ask for access to the IDFA. At the same time, the initial storage of the IDFA and Apple’s use of it will continue without prior user consent.

“We believe that Apple violated the law before, now and after these changes,” said Rosseti. “With our complaints we want to enforce a simple principle: trackers are illegal, unless a user freely consents. The IDFA should not only be restricted, but permanently deleted. Smartphones are the most intimate device for most people and they must be tracker-free by default.”

NOYB’s complaints have been filed in both Spain and Germany under Article 5(3) of the e-Privacy Directive rather than under GDPR, meaning the authorities in both nations do not need to cooperate with the EU.

NOYB is currently also reviewing a similar tracking system being used by Google.

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The European Commission has accused Amazon of breaching the EU’s rules, formally levelling the eCommerce giant with charges over its treatment of third-party sellers.

The Commission has reached the ‘preliminary view’ that Amazon has been relying on the non-public business data of independent sellers on its marketplace to help its own retail business. Alongside this, a second formal antitrust investigation has been launched by the Commission into whether Amazon gave its own retail offers preferential treatment, as well as those third-party sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.

“We must ensure that dual role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition.  Data on the activity of third-party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers,” said Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition. “The conditions of competition on the Amazon platform must also be fair.  Its rules should not artificially favour Amazons own retail offers or advantage the offers of retailers using Amazons logistics and delivery services. With eCommerce booming, and Amazon being the leading eCommerce platform, a fair and undistorted access to consumers online is important for all sellers.”

According to the Commission’s initial findings, employees of Amazon’s retail business have access to ‘very large quantities’ of third-party seller data, which is used to give Amazon’s own products an advantage over those of other marketplace sellers, thus enabling Amazon to avoid the risks of true competition on its platform.

The Commission’s separate investigation will particularly look at whether the criteria Amazon uses to select the winners of its ‘Buy Box’ and to enable sellers to offer products to Prime users lead to preferential treatment of Amazon’s own business or the sellers that use the company’s logistics and delivery services.

The second element of that investigation will focus on how effectively third-party sellers are able to reach Prime users.

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EDiMA, an organisation representing the likes of Google, Facebook, Snap, TikTok, Twitter, and others, wants to see the EU introduce a legal safeguard that would allow companies to remove content without facing additional liability.

“All of our members take their responsibility very seriously and want to do more to tackle illegal content and activity online. A European legal safeguard for service providers would give them the leeway to use their resources and technology in creative ways in order to do so,” said Siada El Ramly, Director General of EDiMA.

The organisation refers to the ‘Good Samaritan’ principle that exists in the US, which enables service providers to remove illegal and harmful content without being liable. Though the suggestion is that this principle should act as the basis for an EU-focused legal safeguard, EDiMA acknowledges that the US principle sometimes gives internet companies too much freedom, meaning they are free to also remove content that isn’t illegal.

The latest paper from EDiMA outlines the ways it believes the EU’s legal safeguard should differ from the US Good Samaritan principle, including that its implementation should be subject to oversight for ‘overaction’. It also recommends that minimum information levels in notices of illegal content are introduced, as well a requirement for a human review of appeals of removal of content.

“The EU approach to the freedom of expression is different to that of the US so our approach to moderating content online must be different also,” said El Ramly. “Our proposal is based on European values and laws and sets clear limits to the legal safeguard for service providers in order to protect the freedom of expression and to prevent overaction by service providers.”

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The concession was made by the deadline given to Google by EU regulators yesterday (13 July). Now, those regulators have until 20 July to decide if Google’s offer is enough to green light the acquisition, if they want more concessions, or if they want to launch a full four-month investigation into the purchase.

“This deal is about devices, not data. We appreciate the opportunity to work with the European Commission on an approach that safeguards consumers’ expectations that Fitbit device data won’t be used for advertising,” Google told Reuters, who first reported the story.

Privacy advocates and regulators in Europe and the US have been concerned about the acquisition since it was announced, even with Google always insisting it wouldn’t use Fitbit’s data for ads.

It’s believed that the European Commission will reach out for feedback from rival wearable-makers – such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei – users to help it make a decision.

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The European Commission’s antitrust regulators are “currently investigating potential anti-competitive behaviour”, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.

The concern is that the Libra Association and its payments ecosystem would unfairly shut out competitors in the space. Regulators are looking at how the exchange of information and use of consumer data may create “possible competition restrictions”.

The Libra Association, which was formed to oversee the cryptocurrency, is made up of names including Spotify, eBay, Vodafone, Uber, Lyft, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal, to name a few. It is described as being an “independent, not-for-profit membership organisation, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland”.

The investigation follows another currently being conducted by EU into how Facebook could use its power to unfairly block out rival apps.

The European Commission’s competition officials, under the stewardship of Margrethe Vestager, haven’t shied away from investigating and fining the tech world’s biggest names – with investigations also ongoing into the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Google, which has already been slapped with a few hefty fines over the past few years.

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Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for competition, is preparing to open the formal inquiry within days, according to Bloomberg, citing two people familiar with the case.

Primary investigations into Amazon began back in September last year. This initial probe looked at concerns that the company uses data from third-party sellers on its platform in order to boost its own sales. The upcoming larger investigation will take a deeper dive into that possibility and will likely conclude in a hefty fine, if the European Commission finds Amazon to be at fault.

“The question here is about data. Because if you, as Amazon, get the data from smaller merchants that you host – which, of course, can be completely legitimate because you can improve your service to these smaller merchants – do you then use this data to do your own calculations,” said Vestager in September.

The inquiry comes at a time when the EU is already preparing to hit chipmaker Qualcomm with a second penalty for underpricing chips in order to squeeze out the competition. There’s also Spotify’s complaint against Apple to manage and the fact European Commission is just one of many bodies looking at Facebook uses people’s data.

Over the past three years, Vestager has hit Google with three separate hefty fines for abusing its power to promote its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results, for forcing Android device makers to use its search and web-browsing tools, and for blocking ads on publisher sites from rival search providers respectively.

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Facebook has expanded its third-party fact-checking programme to more European countries, entering partnerships with organisations in Greece, Northern Ireland, Croatia, Portugal, and Lithuania.

This means Facebook now has fact-checking available in 14 European languages including Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. All of Facebook’s European Union fact-checking partners are part of a collaborative effort, led by the International Fact-Checking Network, called FactCheckEU.

Earlier this month, the social network introduced a ‘Click-Gap’ signal to identify whether a website is producing low-quality content by looking at the percentage of total Facebook clicks it gets, and comparing that number to its web graph. The web graph shows the clicks it gets from other sources, or the website’s broader internet status.

The context button, which provides information about an article’s source, is also being expanded to show if a page has a history of sharing misinformation and display ‘trust indicators’, which are publisher-provided links to its fact-checking principles, code of ethics, corrections policy, ownership/funding, and editorial team. In addition, the ‘Page Quality’ tab is going to be expanded to include a page’s misinformation violations.

Instead of punishing group administrators without explanation and chance to redeem themselves, Facebook will begin informing admins if a third-party fact-checker has deemed content that was posted in their group as false. If a group continually shares misinformation, Facebook will demote the group in the news feed. The providing of notifications about posting misinformation will be extended to publishers who have shared something that has already been debunked.

“Misinformation is a complex and evolving problem, and we have more work to do,” said Antonia Woodford, product manager at Facebook, in a blog post. “We’re investing heavily to get ahead because we believe in providing a space for civic discourse during elections. We’ll continue to take steps to ensure this discourse is safe, authentic, and accurate.”

Twitter has launched a dedicated reporting feature related to flagging content which deliberately attempts to mislead voters about the voting process. This includes misleading information about how to vote or register to vote, misleading information about the requirements for voting, and misleading statements or information about the date or time of an election.

The feature has already been introduced in India and will arrive in EU member states from 29 April.

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YouTube will soon get publisher transparency labels in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland. These labels, which were first announced in the US over a year ago, appear on videos from channels of news publishers which receive government or public funding.

“Our goal here is to equip you with more information to help you better understand the sources of news content that you choose to watch on YouTube,” said Lie Junius, director of EU government affairs and public policy at Google, in a blog post.

The video sharing platform already highlights authoritative news sources within its Top News and Breaking News sections in countries like the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, and the Netherlands, and will roll out the features to more European countries “in the coming weeks and months”.

Away from YouTube, Google has created a specific destination in Google News called ‘2019 European elections’. Here, the latest “top journalism” on the elections is curated from the user’s country and across the European Union.

Google Trends will “surface the top questions, issues and most-searched candidates running in the elections”, supporting data-driven stories about the elections. A Google Trends EU Election hub has also been setup in Germany, France, and the UK.

The search giant has also launched tools to support fact checking organisations and is providing digital tools and verification workshops for journalists across the EU.

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Following discussions between Facebook, the European Commission, and consumer authorities, the new terms make it clearer that keeping Facebook free requires the social network selling user data to third parties for advertising purposes. It terms will also provide information on how users can close their accounts and under what reasons accounts can be disabled.

“Today Facebook finally shows commitment to more transparency and straight forward language in its terms of use. A company that wants to restore consumers trust after the Facebook/ Cambridge Analytica scandal should not hide behind complicated, legalistic jargon on how it is making billions on peoples data,” said Vera Jourová, commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality. “Now, users will clearly understand that their data is used by the social network to sell targeted ads. By joining forces, the consumer authorities and the European Commission, stand up for the rights of EU consumers.”

Facebook has also made amendments to its policy on the limitation of liability, now acknowledging its responsibility in the case of negligence; has limited the cases where it can unilaterally makes changes to terms; set the limit to 90 days for holding on to deleted content; and clarified the language around a user’s right to appeal the removal of content.

Although the exact wording of the updated terms has not yet been disclosed, the social network has until the end of June to implement the changes. Failure of Facebook to implement the changes in time could result in sanctions.

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