that service was free
Facebook has received a fine of 3.6 million euros from the Hungarian cartel watchdog. The social network would wrongly say that the service is ‘free’. According to the regulator, users actually paid with their data. They would be misled thereby.

The fine comes from the Hungarian Gazdasági Versenyhivata or GVH, the competition authority of Hungary. The GVH gives the fine because Facebook from 2010 to at least October 23 this year stated that the service can be used free of charge. In reality, users paid with their data, says the authority. Users would therefore be misled about the value of the data they gave to the company. Facebook earned from using the data and activities of users. That data was the ‘payment’ to the platform.

It is a fine of 1.2 billion forint, equivalent to 3.6 million euros. The news came out in an email brought by Bloomberg . A spokesperson for the governmental body confirms the fine to Tweakers. This is the highest fine that the authority has ever handed out in the country. Earlier this year, Facebook was fined a million euros for violating the AVG.