Meta fined for alleged lack of consumer protection measures in South Korea

Seoul, May 2
South Korea's antitrust regulator said on Friday it has decided to fine Meta Platforms, the operator of Facebook and Instagram, on charges of violating the country's law on consumer protection.

Meta Platforms was slapped with a 6 million-won ($4,176) fine and ordered to take necessary measures to align with the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC said the U.S.-based company failed to fulfill consumer protection obligations under the law, reports Yonhap news agency.

According to the FTC, Meta Platforms failed to inform e-commerce sellers of their obligations under the consumer protection act and encourage them to comply with those obligations.

The U.S. company is also accused of not operating a dispute settlement system for consumers, not establishing procedures to verify essential identification information of sellers and not specifying the platforms' consumer protection responsibilities in their terms of service.

The FTC said it ordered Meta to address the issues within 180 days to create a safer environment for e-commerce transactions on its platforms.

Last November, Meta was ordered to pay 21.6 billion won ($15.6 million) in fines for collecting sensitive data from users without notice and handing it over to advertisers.

The Personal Information Protection Commission said it decided to impose the penalty on Meta during a plenary meeting Monday after finding that the company had collected data, such as religious and political views, marital status, and sexual orientation, of some 980,000 local Facebook users in violation of the law.

The Personal Information Protection Act bans the use of information such as a person's ideology, beliefs, political opinions and sex life except when the subject agrees to its use.

Meta was also accused of transferring the information to about 4,000 advertisers, who used the data to create customised ads based on the personal interests of the users. The commission said the tech giant failed to clearly state where the personal data was being used in its data policy and did not seek user consent or take further protective measures.