Facebook has lost the fight against Germany over illegal data collection accusations. According to The New York Times' latest report, the social media platform lost an appeal against charges that it violated competition laws by abusing its dominance in social media in a closely watched case of an antitrust decision.
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Germany's top court ruling on Tuesday, June 23, ould further embolden European governments to take on large tech platforms, claiming that Facebook illegally harvests data about its users by abusing its dominance in social media.
The decision is the country's major victory for proponents of tougher regulation of the world's largest technology companies after Germany's antitrust watchdog upheld a decision ruled by the Federal Court of Justice.
According to The New York Times' previous report, the case had been closely observed after a novel interpretation of competition law to rule against the social media giant last year was used by German regulators. The authorities claimed that Facebook broke competition laws by combining data collected from users across different platforms,
Facebook accused of violating competition laws in Germany
User data were acquired from social media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, as well as from third-party apps and even outside websites. The social media giant now needs to alter how it processes data about its users in Germany. The social media company must now allow people when they refuse to combine information about their daily activities on other apps and websites with Facebook.
The decision on the case may not be the last word since a ruling on the matter must still be issued by a lower court. The process is viewed by some antitrust attorneys as a formality given the high court's strongly worded ruling. However, it was theorized that another appeal might be set up with the federal high court making the lower court ruling in Facebook's favor.
However, Rupprecht Podszun, a professor of competition law at the University of Dusseldorf, said that German officials could send the matter to the European Court of Justice, the high court of the European Union that resolves many thorny legal questions from member states, to avoid a ruling in Facebook's favor.
Facebook argued that it still has months before it must comply, allowing the social media platform to continue the fight and avoid making sudden decisions to make any immediate changes.
"We will continue to defend our position that there is no antitrust abuse," said the social media company.
