To comply with European consumer protection law, Google has made a commitment to the European Union to modify its services to provide more transparency to consumers.
The European Union continues its actions for the protection of consumers and mainly against “the lack of transparency and clear information toof these, we found out in a press release from the European Commission. Given this, Googlehas committed to making changes to several of its products and services“. This concerns, among other things, the Google Store and the Google Play Store, but also the Google Hotels and Google Flights platforms, for the purpose of “ensure compliance with EU consumer protection rules».
Google takes steps to comply with EU rules
The web giant says it agrees to limit price changes or cancellations and indicates that it has created an email address for consumer protection authorities, “so they can report illegal content and request its rapid removal».
On the Google Flights and Google Hotels side, the services will explicitly mention whether they buy directly from Google or if the latter is just an intermediary. In addition to this, the announcements about discounts will indicate the reference price and will specify “that the reviews are not verified in Google Hotels“. Finally, Google assumes the same commitments as the rest of the platforms in the presentation of information: price, availability, etc.
As for the Play Store and Google Store, consumers will be able to check “clear pre-contractual information about shipping costs, the right of withdrawal and the availability of repair or replacement options“. They will also be able to have more information about the developer of an application: company name, address, telephone number. Finally, customers will better see the possibility of using means of payment from any country in the Union and developers will know that they must make your applications usable in all member countries.
The European Union still has complaints to file against Google
These changes are the result of a dialogue initiated in 2021 through the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, created by “the Dutch consumer authority and the General Directorate of the Belgian Economic Inspectorate», in collaboration with the European Commission. However, the institution still has things to reproach the big technology groups for.
In the press release, we learn that “one of Google’s practices still does not comply with the geoblocking policy“. The society “imposes technical limitations on the use of applications that would otherwise be accessible in the country where the user is temporarily located“Google responds that users can change their country of residence once a year. An answer that does not satisfy this cooperation network, for whom”however, this modification may result in the loss of previously purchased content and remaining credit, which is considered contrary to geo-blocking regulations».
Google, therefore, remains in the sights of the European authority, but not only. A few days ago, the United States Department of Justice filed a complaint against Google for violating competition law. It accuses the giant of being in a monopoly position in the online advertising market.
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