German courts ruled: WhatsApp has violated the Telemedia Act

A Berlin Court ruled that WhatsApp failed to comply with the German Telemedia Act and another court upheld this judgment recently. The claim is about WhatsApp forcing German users to agree to terms of service in the English language and therefore breaking consumer protection rules. According to this ruling, WhatsApp violates Germany’s Telemedia Act, as it does not provide consumers with a German company representative in case any questions or concerns occur.

In case the decision will be lawful, WhatsApp will be required to translate the entire terms of service and the privacy policy into German or be fined $283,000.

The CEO of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, Klaus Müller, said that companies complicate their terms and conditions so that it is difficult for consumers to understand them. He goes on by saying that millions of WhatsApp users in Germany have an even harder time reading and understanding them in English.

Therefore, the problem is that consumers tend to accept the terms and conditions without really knowing what they signed up for.

However, up until today it is not known if WhatsApp will appeal the ruling one last time.