Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A Romanian man who was given trinkets like a free mug and a backpack after he did thousands of edits on pages run by the two tech giants Google and Facebook has lost a legal bid to make them pay him for his work.
The man, who was not named but who lives in Ghergani village in southern Romania, had demanded Google pay him 26,400 EUR and Facebook pay him 10,500 EUR for the work that he did between 2010 and 2015.
He said that amounted to 16,400 edits on Google Maps, and that he also verified and approved more than 10,000 third-party edits that had been written by others, and also then did an additional 10,500 edits on Facebook’s maps (which are supplied by Microsoft’s Bing). He wanted to be paid 1 EUR for every edit.
The only payment he received from Google however was a backpack, a pen, a mug and a certificate of competence, and from Facebook all he received was a shirt.
In his complaint, he said that the work he had done had benefited millions of users of the two companies’ platforms, and also pointed out that they made profits of millions of euros.
Facebook however rejected the demand saying that they would not accept anything that was written in Romanian, and needed it in English, citing the Hague Convention which was agreed to by Romania in 2003.
They also said that the Racari Court where the case had been filed does not have jurisdiction anyway to deal with the legal case.
And they also pointed out that he does not have a signed contract to back up his claim.
It was also argued that his claim had timed out as it was only filed in 2018.
For their part, Google had wanted the court case thrown out as he needed to prove that he had done the editing he claimed and also because he had no legal or contractual arrangement that gave him the right to demand the money.
The court, in a decision which the man can appeal, ruled in the end that the case had indeed timed out as there was a three-year period.
They also pointed out that although the law does state that anybody who suffered loss through the unlawful act of another has to provide compensation, however, they did not accept that the actions were unlawful and therefore did not consider any of the rest of the claim.
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