AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

EXCHANGE OF PERSONAL DATA WITH FACEBOOK AND OPPRESSIVE CLAUSES, DOUBLE ANTITRUST INVESTIGATION ON WHATSAPP

The Italian Competition Authority has launched two investigations into WhatsApp Inc. practices over alleged violations of the Consumer Code.

The first proceeding aims to ascertain whether the US company has de facto forced WhatsApp Messenger users to wholly accept the new “Terms and Conditions”, in particular regarding the sharing of their personal data with Facebook, by allegedly making them believe, through a message made visible when opening the application, that it would have been otherwise impossible to continue using it. Moreover, the conditioning effect could have possibly been reinforced by making “Facebook” the default option in the secondary level page to which the user was redirected through a link contained in the main message.

The other proceeding is directed at ascertaining the possible oppressive nature of some contractual clauses included in WhatsApp Messenger’s “Terms of Use” concerning, in particular, the right granted to the company to unilaterally change contractual provisions, the termination right granted exclusively to the firm, the exclusions and limitations of liability established in its favor, the possibility to interrupt the service without justifications, the choice of Jurisdiction in case of disputes, which is currently established exclusively in US courts.

Rome, 28^th October 2016