Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will change to better protect the consumer against scams

The main social platforms have committed themselves with the governments to make modifications to tackle fraud problems

  Social platforms Facebook, Twitter and Google+ have committed to European governments and the European Commission to make several substantial changes to address the problems of fraud or fraud, as well as abusive practices in social networks.

They have also committed to ensuring compliance with EU consumer protection rules in the face of the growing number of complaints in this regard from European consumers and will present concrete proposals within a month.

   The companies have agreed to make changes to clarify the conditions of use of social media platforms and to suppress abusive conditions, which, among others, will require that they will not be able to deprive consumers of their right to go to the courts of their Member State of residence and may not require them to renounce their rights, for example, to cancel a purchase on the network.

"It is not acceptable that EU consumers can only resort to a California court to resolve a dispute, nor can we accept that users are deprived of their right to cancel an online purchase," said the Commissioner of Justice, Vera Jourová.

In addition, the companies may not "unilaterally" modify the clauses and conditions, without clearly informing the consumers and without giving them the possibility of rescinding the contract respecting an adequate notice period nor may they grant "unlimited and discretionary" powers to the operators of Social media to suppress content. In addition, the termination of contracts by social media operators must be governed by clear rules and can not be decided "unilaterally" and "without cause".

Likewise, they will not be able to hide the sponsored content, which must be clearly identified as such and the responsibility of the social networks regarding the provision of the service under the conditions of use can not be totally limited or excluded. "The social media companies must also assume a greater responsibility when it comes to dealing with the scams and frauds that are committed on their platforms," ​​justified the Commissioner of Justice.

The platforms are committed to remove from their websites, as soon as they become aware, frauds and scams that could harm consumers, for example, scams that affect payments made by consumers, underwriting traps, the commercialization of counterfeit products or fictitious promotions like the one that has proliferated in social networks to win a smart phone "for one euro" when in reality it implied a "long term" subscription, with a cost of several hundred euros a year.

The national consumer protection authorities should have a direct and standardized communication channel to point out such irregularities to the operators of social media and ensure that such content is deleted, as well as obtain information regarding the operators responsible for the infringements.

The three companies have agreed to finalize "detailed measures" to comply with European standards of consumer protection within a month, which will be examined by the European Commission and the national authorities of the Twenty-eight of consumer protection to determine if they are " satisfactory. " If they are not, they can resort to "coercive measures" in the last resort, as the community executive has warned.

The companies advanced possible "solutions" to comply with European regulations in a meeting with the national authorities and the community executive on March 16 after receiving a letter from them in November to address the problems in light of the growing number of complaints of consumers, victims of fraud or fraud when using websites of social media or abusive conditions of use.

The commissioner warned that companies "has a month to propose solutions" to comply with European regulations and has insisted that the growing importance of social networks must "ensure that the strict EU rules" to protect the consumer against to abusive practices "are also met in this sector".