The Italian Competition Authority has launched an investigation into Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Dropbox Inc over their cloud storage services.
The competition and market authority on Monday said that it has opened a total of six investigations into Apple iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox’s online storage service in response to complaints about unfair commercial practices and contraventions of the nation’s consumer rights directive.
In one case, it is also looking into “vexatious clauses” in a contract.
The regulator said that it is looking into whether the three companies either failed to, or did not adequately, indicate how users’ data would be collected and used for commercial purposes.
It is also examining whether Dropbox failed to provide clear and accessible information on how users could get out of contracts or pursue out of court dispute settlements.
Apple, Google and Dropbox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Italian probe follows wider efforts by EU regulators to clarify the fine print tech companies use in their terms and conditions of service so consumers can better understand how their information is being used.
Facebook Inc last year updated its terms of service to clarify how it makes money from user data in response to pressure from European regulators.
GOOGLE DROPS DUBLIN
Google has walked away from a plan to rent space in Dublin for as many 2,000 workers, shelving one of the city’s biggest real-estate deals in recent years.
Google had been in talks to rent about 18,766m2 of space at the Sorting Office, close to the Irish capital’s south quays, adding to its array of sites in the city.
“After much deliberation, Google has decided not to proceed,” a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail response to questions from Bloomberg.
The company did not say why it chose not to go ahead with the deal.
A spokesman for the developer, Marlet, could not immediately comment.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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