Italy: Issued ruling in Italian Competition and Market Authority investigation into Facebook for continued misleading practices regarding data use

On 9 February 2021, the Italian competition authority issued a ruling in its investigation into Facebook for misleading practices regarding data use. The Italian Competition and Market Authority fined Facebook a total of EUR 7 million for not implementing the provisions set forth in the measure issued against them in November 2018. The Authority found that Facebook misleadingly induced users to register on its platform by not immediately and adequately informing them, during the activation of their accounts, about the collection of their data for commercial purposes and the underlying profit motives of the service, while instead emphasising the service's free nature. The information provided by Facebook was deemed generic and incomplete, failing to adequately distinguish between data used for personalisation and for targeted advertising. The investigation revealed that Facebook did not publish the corrective statement mandated by AGCM. Although the claim of free service during registration had been removed, immediate and clear information about the collection and commercial use of user data was still not provided.