Hungary Has Fined Facebook For 'Misleading Consumers' Because It Promoted Its Service As 'Free'

from the uh,-it-is dept

Perhaps one of the more annoying points that people like to make when you point out that certain services are "free" is for them to point out, pedantically, "but you pay with your data" or some other such point. This is annoying because it's (1) obvious and (2) not the point. When people say something is "free" in this context, they don't mean "free of all consequences." They mean "it doesn't cost money." However, it appears that Hungary's Competition Authority is playing this pedantic game on a larger scale and has fined Facebook approximately $4 million because it advertises its services as "Free and anyone can join" on its front page:

The Hungarian Competition Authority claimed that this was misleading because Facebook profited from their data:

According to the competition authority, Facebook posted slogans such as “Free and anyone can join” on its opening page and help center, claiming that its services were free of charge. While true that users don’t pay a fee, they paid for their use of Facebook by driving profits to the company through its collection and use of their detailed data, such as consumer preferences, interests and habits, the authority said. It added that, using that information, Facebook sold advertising opportunities to its clients, with the ads reaching consumers through their insertion among users’ Facebook posts. The authority said that the notices about the free use of Facebook “distract consumers’ attention” from the compensation they provide the company — the provision and extent of their data and its consequences.

That seems... incredibly silly. First off, it's ridiculously paternalistic and pedantic at the same time. Second, how many people were actually "fooled" by this. More to the point: if Facebook didn't have that slogan on its front page, does anyone honestly believe that it would have changed whether or not someone signed up? Third, the service is free. Of course, Facebook is trying to make a profit, but in this context, everyone knows that what Facebook means by "free" is that you don't have to pay money for it.

The article linked above claims that part of the size of the judgment was due to the fact that once the Hungarian agency began investigating Facebook, it changed that global "slogan." I had no idea. I just looked and, yup:

Okay, so now it says "It's quick and easy" rather than "It's free and anyone can join." Will that actually change anything? Seems doubtful. In the meantime, considering how pedantic and silly this whole thing is, I'm almost surprised that the Hungarian Competition Authority also didn't fine the company for the "anyone can join" part, since that's not "technically" true either, since the company has banned some people.

It's one thing to say that Facebook should be regulated, or that it deserves to be fined over its behavior, but does anyone out there think this is a reasonable fine or will do anything to curb bad behavior?

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Filed Under: free, hungary, misleading consumers

Companies: facebook