With immediate effect, Facebook must stop merging and sharing user data across its platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram in Germany, according to a ruling by the country’s highest court.
On Tuesday (23 June), the Federal Supreme Court ruled that with this practice Facebook had abused its dominant market position, confirming the opinion of Germany’s Federal Antitrust Agency, known as the Bundeskartellamt, which states that Facebook is exploiting its dominant market position to gain an advantage.
Specifically, this involves the collection and processing of user data, for example, to create profiles from which consumer behaviour can be deduced. Thanks to these profiles, Facebook can display personalised advertising and accordingly demand high fees from advertisers.
However, because users would not have agreed to such a merger of data at the time of registration, the Bundeskartellamt issued an order against Facebook in February 2019 to ban this practice.
Author: Philipp Grüll