German High Court Rules Facebook Must Comply With Antitrust Order

Facebook suffered a setback at Germany’s highest civil court in its fight against a fierce attack on its business model by the nation’s antitrust watchdog, reported Bloomberg.
Judges at a hearing on Tuesday ruled that Facebook had to comply with an antitrust order by the Federal Cartel Office overhauling how it tracks users’ browsing and smartphone apps and signaled that the U.S. company is abusing its market dominance. The ruling is temporary while the underlying suit is pending.

“We have no doubt that Facebook has a dominant market position on the social network market and that it misuses its position,” said presiding judge Peter Meier-Beck of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.

In February 2019, the antitrust regulator made a landmark attack on Facebook’s advertising model, giving the company 12 months to stop “unrestrictedly collecting and using” data and combining it with users’ Facebook accounts without their consent. At the time, Facebook said it was being unfairly singled out by the regulator, which was breaking new ground by using antitrust law to tackle data privacy.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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