The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and eight of its members announced on Monday 12 July that they had filed complaints against the WhatsApp application, owned by the giant Facebook, with the European Commission and consumer protection authorities.
BEUC believes that the messaging application pressured its users to accept its new rules and policies. WhatsApp had updated its privacy policy in January, allowing it to share some data with Facebook and other companies in the group.
This update caused many users to leave, opting for alternative applications such as Telegram and Signal.
“The content of these notifications, their nature, timing and recurrence put an undue pressure on users and impair their freedom of choice. As such, they are a breach of the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices”, the stakeholders said in a joint statement.
“WhatsApp has failed to explain in plain and intelligible language the nature of the changes”, they added.
The European Commission and the various national consumer protection authorities will now have to decide whether or not to open an investigation into the matter. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)