A French consumer protection group is fed up with unreadable, inaccessible and illegal user agreements of three major companies: Facebook, Twitter and Google.

The UFC-Que Choisir, France’s top consumer rights group, isn’t the only European consumer group with major concerns about how these websites are run and collect data on their countrymen. In December, Spain fined Google €900.000 for breaking data protection laws, another French group CNIL fined Google €150.000 for failing to meet a three-month long deadline to align the practice of tracking and storing user information with France’s law and the Netherlands have accused Google of violating privacy protection laws. Several other European consumer protection groups have been investigating the Google privacy policy as well.

The UFC-Que Choisir argues that the user agreements presented by these websites are only available on the website, are too long with too many hypertext links that often aren’t available in French. UFC-Que Choisir sent letters to these companies in June of last year asking that they bring their policies within the letter of French law. The user agreement is a contract between the user of the website and the company itself. French contract law requires that the entire contract be in French. Additionally, UFC-Que Choisir argues that the enormous number of hypertext links make it unclear to the consumers whether or not they form part of the agreement. Because the letters to the companies yielded no responses, the consumer group has issued the companies with summons to appear before the Paris High Court. UFC-Que Choisir has asked that the court strike out what they allege to be unfair or illegal clauses in the user agreements.

Check back with us soon for an update on what the French courts decide in this matter and for our new e-book, Data Privacy: A Practical Guide for more information about data privacy issues and solutions!

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