A regional court in Berlin found that Facebook had not changed their terms and conditions statement to adequately address intellectual property concerns. The court fined Facebook 100,000 euros ($109,000) Tuesday, just one week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to Berlin, where he was awarded the first ever Axel Springer Award for entrepreneurship and innovation.
Four years ago, in response to a complaint filed by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV), a German court found that Facebook’s terms and conditions did not address the circumstances in which users intellectual property could be used by Facebook or even licensed to third parties.
The regional court in Berlin ruled today that while Facebook did change the wording of the statement on intellectual property in their terms and conditions, the message remained the same.
A spokesperson for Facebook, however, said that the problem was with the timing rather than the message.
“We complied with the order to clarify a single provision in our terms concerning an IP license a while ago. The court felt we did not update our terms quickly enough and has issued a fine, which we will pay” he added. ”
However, the court’s ruling stated that the problem was not with the speed by which the clause was updated, but with the fact that the key message was never changed.
