The European Commission (EC) urged social media giant Facebook Thursday to revise "misleading" consumer terms to conform with the bloc's regulations by the end of the year or face financial penalties, APF reported.
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"My patience has reached its limit," said EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova in a statement. "It is now time for action and no more promises."
Jourova promised to call upon consumer protection authorities throughout all bloc's member-states to act quickly and sanction Facebook if it fails to comply.
"While Facebook assured me to finally adapt any remaining misleading terms of services by December, this has been ongoing for too long," she continued.
The EU Commission called Facebook's proposals "very limited", despite revisions the company made in April. The EC also said that Facebook's new terms of services "contain a misleading presentation of the main characteristics of Facebook's services".
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The Commission has cracked down on US tech giants in recent history, after punishing Google with massive anti-trust fines and hiking regulations on Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, or ‘GAFA'.
Facebook also came under intense scrutiny after London-based Cambridge Analytica admitted to compromising nearly 87 million Facebook users' data, including banking information and credit card purchases.
San-Francisco based AirBnb also came under fire on Thursday for non-compliant terms and conditions. The EC expects AirBnb to finalize proposals on all of its EU-language websites by the end of December or face enforcement measures from consumer authorities.
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) September 20, 2018
"The online players have revolutionised the way we travel, find accommodation and experience our holidays," Jourova said in a statement. "But they also need to fully comply with the rules and take responsibility when things go bad. But EU consumers enjoy rights both off-line and online."
European Central Bank executive board member Yves Mersch also heavily criticized GAFA payment services in September, stating that they must conform to the EU's revised Payment Services Directive on payment systems integration. He insisted that the rules would help non-EU companies compete fairly and increase transparency for consumers.
