Digital rights group files additional complaint against Meta’s ‘pay or okay’ model

The non-profit digital rights organisation Noyb filed an additional complaint on Thursday morning (11 January) with the Austrian data protection authority about Facebook’s “pay or okay” system, this time focusing on the withdrawal conditions.

Facebook’s “free and always will be” promise came to an end in the EU in November, after its parent company launched paid subscriptions for Facebook and Instagram for “€9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android” for EU users to choose to stop receiving targeted advertisements.

The move originates from the fact that Meta’s legal basis for processing personal data in the EU, based on the so-called ‘contract model’, was found to be in breach of Europe’s data protection framework.

At the end of November, Noyb, the European Center for Digital Rights, a non-profit organisation founded by Austrian activist Max Schrems, filed a complaint about Facebook’s new system with the Austrian data protection authority.

According to the previous complaint, when giving users a “choice” between getting ads or paying, “industry numbers suggest that only 3% of people want to be tracked – while more than 99% decide against a payment when faced with a ‘privacy fee'”. Noyb also called the price “unacceptable”.

However, the digital rights organisation now emphasises that the new system has other issues: once users consent to be tracked, it is not easy to withdraw the decision.

Consumer groups file complaint against Meta's 'pay-or-consent' model

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and 18 of its members filed a complaint to the European Commission on Thursday (30 November) against Meta’s “unfair pay-or-consent” model under EU consumer law.

While the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) points out that withdrawing consent should be as easy as giving it, Noyb finds that “the only option to ‘withdraw’ the (one-click) consent is to buy a €251.88 subscription” after going through “several windows and banners” to find the page where revoking consent is located.

“It is painfully obvious that paying €251.88 per year to withdraw consent is not as easy as clicking an ‘Okay’ button to accept the tracking,” said Massimiliano Gelmi, data protection lawyer at Noyb.

In November, as Euractiv reported, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and 18 of its members also filed a complaint. BEUC’s initiative differed from Noyb’s in that it filed a complaint in front of the European Commission instead of a national data protection authority and rooted its claims within a breach of EU consumer law instead of the EU data protection law.

Noyb will now file another complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority (DSB) on behalf of one complainant, which will likely be forwarded to the “lead authority” for Meta in the EU, the Irish Data Protection Commission.

The organisation would like an easier withdrawal option that does not request the user to pay a fee and a fine for Meta to prevent future GDPR violations.

In December, Euractiv revealed how the EU consumer protection department was seeking to establish a third, privacy-friendly option to the pay-or-okay model via its voluntary commitments meant to phase out third-party cookies.

EU Commission seeks third way between ‘pay or consent’ in voluntary pledges

The EU’s consumer protection department presented draft pledging principles for the digital advertising industry as part of its initiative to phase out cookie banners that include the provision of a third, less intrusive alternative to the pay-or-consent model.

In March,

Tier acquires Dott in bid to become European micro-mobility champion

Following recent profit losses, e-bike and e-scooter start-ups Tier and Dott announced on Wednesday (10 January) a preliminary merger agreement that seeks to make the new entity the 'European champion' of micro-mobility.