What’s up with WhatsApp?
What’s up with WhatsApp?
On 12 July 2021, BEUC and eight of its member organisations [1] submitted an external alert to the European Commission and the network of European consumer authorities (“CPC-network”) to report on several aggressive and misleading commercial practices by the messaging app WhatsApp, in accordance with EU Regulation 2017/2394 of 12 December 2017 (“CPC Regulation”). According to our analysis, these practices constitute a widespread infringement with a Union dimension of several pieces of EU consumer law.
In March 2023, the complaint was officially closed. Disappointingly, the authorities’ response was limited to improving transparency for consumers and only in the future. Authorities did not address the main point of our complaint, namely the aggressive nature of the practices that WhatsApp used, and no remedy was offered to consumers forced to accept the new terms.
[1] Members included: APC (Romania), Consumentenbond (the Netherlands), dTest (Czech Republic), Forbrukerrådet (Norway), KEPKA (Greece), EKPIZO (Greece), S.O.S. Poprad (Slovakia) and UFC-Que Choisir (France).
We called on the authorities to take swift action to ensure WhatsApp respects consumer rights.This complaint was officially closed in March 2023, with the disappointing news for consumers that WhatsApp would only be given a ‘yellow card’.
WhatsApp targeted in EU consumer complaints over privacy changes
Reuters (12 July 2021)
“Facebook Inc's WhatsApp on Monday faced a barrage of complaints by the European Consumer Organisation and others over a privacy policy update, which has prompted a global outcry and led some users to switch to rival apps Telegram and Signal.”
Verbraucherorganisationen reichen Beschwerde gegen WhatsApp ein
Euractiv (13 July 2021)
“Mehrere Verbraucherschutzorganisationen haben eine Beschwerde gegen WhatsApp eingereicht. Sie beschuldigen die Messaging-App, Nutzer:innen übermäßig unter Druck zu setzen, die neuen Datenschutzrichtlinien zu akzeptieren, ohne die tatsächlichen Konsequenzen für persönliche Daten zu erklären.”
Vuelve la polémica: las nuevas normas de uso de WhatsApp son denunciadas por los sindicatos de consumidores
20 Minutos (13 July 2021)
“La Oficina Europea de Sindicatos de Consumidores (BEUC) anunció este lunes que había presentado una denuncia a WhatsApp ante la Comisión Europea. El texto refleja que está en contra de la aplicación de mensajería por su última modificación de las condiciones de uso de sus servicios.”
WhatsApp visé par une plainte d'associations de consommateurs européens
La Tribune (12 July 2021)
“Le service de messagerie de Facebook avait informé en début d’année ses utilisateurs qu’ils devaient consentir à de nouvelles règles. WhatsApp avait ensuite décalé au 15 mai la mise en œuvre de ces conditions face au tollé, les utilisateurs s’inquiétant que la messagerie ne partage davantage de données avec sa maison-mère.”
WhatsApp Faces Growing Complaints Over Aggressive Privacy Policy Pop-Ups
International Business Times (12 July 2021)
“WhatsApp users have complained to European Union consumer groups of being bombarded with pop-ups to accept the app's new terms of service over a new privacy update. Complicating matters, the privacy update for the messaging service has confused many users.”
Contact Card
Communications Department
The European Consumer Organisation
Europäischer Verbraucherverband
Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs
Tel:
E-mail:
Alexandre Biard
Head of Consumer Redress and Enforcement
Andrew Canning
Senior Communications Officer