Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
DropBox? There are plenty of competitors.

In the end we will all lose if these overreaching governments get their way.
 
The AGCM doesn't only handle antitrust violations, they are also responsible of enforcing consumer protection in general, including unfair commercial practices which can be illegal no matter how big or small a company is.

That's the theory. I believe maclawyer was referring to the practice. Maybe AGCM just threw in Dropbox as a smokescreen of legitimacy.
 
DropBox? There are plenty of competitors.

In the end we will all lose if these overreaching governments get their way.

this isn’t about anti competitive behavior. Partly it’s because the legal documents users are supposed to agree to aren’t even available in Italian
 
  • Like
Reactions: sdz
Not sure why some are either quick to defend or quick to condemn Apple.

They are a company like any other. We hear about these things because we are on an Apple specialty interest site but there’s nothing here to indicate Apple specifically are being targeted.

Long gone are the days of Apple as underdog, instead they are the most successful or one of the most successful companies on the planet.
 
1. What does of 'proper' notification mean? Either you are notified or you are not. Being burred on page 42 of 53 of the TOS is still notification.
No, it's likely not. In Italy some contractual clauses cannot be buried in the bandwagon and need to be accepted individually and explicitly.

2. Does Italy not have Smart TVs? Because that's how they all seem to work. Data collection without being able to deny consent with changes that hurt customers frequently being made.
Not sure of the state of Smart TVs in general and Italy in particular: I have a Samsung Smart TV in Europe and I have denied consent to data collection. The option was prompted to me and I could simply go ahead without checking the "I agree" box.

3. Isn't unilateral contracts how all service clauses work? Every single product I own basically says they are not responsible for anything. I get messages daily from companies letting me know they change my contract clauses. Just this moment I got an email saying my Samsung Cloud storage is being shut down, even thought I paid for it. Would that be legal Italy?
What the contract says and what is legally enforceable are two very different things. In Italy clauses which unfairly disadvantage the consumer are subject to special legislation.

If the clause says the Cloud Storage can be shut down unilaterally by the service provider at any time without refund I doubt it's legal.
 
The official announcement from AGCM is here (in Italian). There are a few details:
  • The investigation for unfair practices is about lack of proper notification to the user of personal data collection for commercial purposes. Furthermore, apparently they take issue that cloud storage services are being linked to such data collection without giving the user the ability to deny consent.
  • The investigation for unfair contractual clauses is about the ability the services operators grant themselves to suspend service, deny liabilities in case of user data loss, the ability to unilaterally modify contract clauses and lack of a full Italian versions of the contract text.

I don’t have a problem with an inability to deny consent. Off the top of my head, there’s four different companies that offer the exact same file storage service - they’re all interchangeable, it’s pretty easy to switch from one to another. If you’re not happy with the terms of one, go to any other. There’s probably dozens of little competitors I’m not aware of - it’s not that hard a service to offer.

Asking Italians for consent without providing an Italian version of the terms does sound sketchy, though.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: verpeiler
I don’t have a problem with an inability to deny consent. Off the top of my head, there’s four different companies that offer the exact same file storage service - they’re all interchangeable, it’s pretty easy to switch from one to another. If you’re not happy with the terms of one, go to any other. There’s probably dozens of little competitors I’m not aware of - it’s not that hard a service to offer.
The issue is not whether there is competition: some practices are illegal no matter how much competition there is. In Italy some clauses need to be explicitly accepted individually: they cannot be buried together with all other clauses and accepted together with the contract.
 
That's the theory. I believe maclawyer was referring to the practice. Maybe AGCM just threw in Dropbox as a smokescreen of legitimacy.
I don't think so, DropBox is actually being investigated for additional, very specific reasons on top of what is being contested to Apple and Google.
 
Well, the Italian government has to maintain its high standards for ethical behavior and culture of fairness in business...

lololololol
Whilst your flippant remark actually is very funny, there's more to it than that.
Apple maintains a facade of high standards for ethical behaviour and culture of fairness in business, but they are still the ones that people have to take to court to get their battery replaced, their peeling screen replaced, their faulty graphics card replaced, and lots more.
Some of these 'lots more' are things that they knew of and went ahead and sold the products anyway. To paraphrase for you -
Me: Hi Apple, my GPU has failed again due to a manufacturing defect.
Apple: F*** Off. We'll see you in court.
 
Last edited:
Not sure why some are either quick to defend or quick to condemn Apple.

I like how everybody is quick to reply the government only wants money, just because Apple is involved.

You know how much money the same agency fined to some telco companies this year? Less than 1 million EURO.
If they're going to fine Apple, chances are they'll have to pay something similar, which is nothing for Apple but even nothing for the government, they're not asking for billions.
Telco companies are often fined by the same agency, but as you can imagine they don't really care, sometimes they receive fines for a few thousand EURO, and of course they laugh at it, pay and continue with their wrongdoing.
 
No, it's likely not. In Italy some contractual clauses cannot be buried in the bandwagon and need to be accepted individually and explicitly.


Not sure of the state of Smart TVs in general and Italy in particular: I have a Samsung Smart TV in Europe and I have denied consent to data collection. The option was prompted to me and I could simply go ahead without checking the "I agree" box.


What the contract says and what is legally enforceable are two very different things. In Italy clauses which unfairly disadvantage the consumer are subject to special legislation.

If the clause says the Cloud Storage can be shut down unilaterally by the service provider at any time without refund I doubt it's legal.

This is so foreign to me.
 
Not Italian, so this seems weird to me.

1. What does of 'proper' notification mean? Either you are notified or you are not. Being burred on page 42 of 53 of the TOS is still notification.

2. Does Italy not have Smart TVs? Because that's how they all seem to work. Data collection without being able to deny consent with changes that hurt customers frequently being made.

3. Isn't unilateral contracts how all service clauses work? Every single product I own basically says they are not responsible for anything. I get messages daily from companies letting me know they change my contract clauses. Just this moment I got an email saying my Samsung Cloud storage is being shut down, even thought I paid for it. Would that be legal Italy?

1. consumer law in some countries is stricter about that precisely because it is impractical to get every contract checked by your own lawyer, especially if the hidden clause is something people wouldn't expect or like.

2. The data collection has to be properly notified, and agreed to, to use a smart TV. A european model will have a load of notices with it, or as click-throughs to activate the smart features.

3. I think the problem is the combination of unilateral contracts with terms which are pretty borderline for conscionability anyway.
 
The investigation for unfair practices is about lack of proper notification to the user of personal data collection for commercial purposes. Furthermore, apparently they take issue that cloud storage services are being linked to such data collection without giving the user the ability to deny consent.
Came here to see if anyone had any insight about why Dropbox was looped in with these other companies. Thank you!
 
And they really need the money. All the country’s riches were scavenged by the local church empire rendering many of their ancient cities into total ruins.
Right, because the almost complete lack of ancient riches in North America is why we’re all so poor over here.

But just out of curiosity, who would you rather had the keeping of Italy’s ancient riches? The nobility? Do you really think they would have done a better job of preserving Italy’s ancient wealth for future generations?

What with invasions by Ostrogoths, Huns, Byzantines, Lombards, Saracens, Normans, and French (to name just a few of the foreign belligerents who fought in Italy and Sicily in the past 1700 years), and what with constant warring between the Italian city-states themselves, just what do you imagine would have happened to those riches had the Church not had the keeping of them?
 
Last edited:
Italy's GDP has trended more or less in-line with the EU, about -12% this quarter. USA's GDP is at -31% in the same period...

No, the USA's GDP did not drop 31%, obviously. That would result in a 30-40% unemployment rate. The USA's most recent quarterly drop was 7-8%, which works out to a 31% drop if annualized. For comparison, the EU's most recent quarterly drop annualizes to a 40% drop. Source: This week's The Economist (doubt you can see this as it's behind a paywall, but here's a link anyway: https://www.economist.com/economic-...0/09/03/economic-data-commodities-and-markets). USA is down 9.1% overall from a year ago; EU, 15%. Italy is a bit worse than the EU average on all those stats.
 
AGCM has published the consultation over iCloud's unfair clauses.

The clauses in question are:
  • I.E. Changing the Service
  • II.C. Backup
  • V.D. Back up Your Content
  • IX. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
The same clauses are available in the US terms of use but I'm unsure whether the text there is 100% equivalent to the Italian version.

The documentation over the alleged unfair commercial practices is not available yet.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.