The Federal Cartel Office has made a ruling that significantly restricts Facebook in Germany: data from third-party sites is no longer allowed to be collected.
We reported on the ruling according to which data collected via third-party sites using Like buttons and Facebook Analytics can no longer be linked to users' accounts.
However, the verdict is not legally binding: Facebook has one month to file an objection - and will probably do so.
An article from the Facebook Newsroom explains why Facebook considers the verdict to be unjustified. The Federal Cartel Office's decision is intended to misapply competition law by imposing special requirements that should only apply to a single company, namely Facebook.
There are three points in particular that Facebook criticizes about the ruling:
1. Popularity does not equal market dominance
As part of its own survey, the Federal Cartel Office found that more than 40% of social media users in Germany do not use Facebook at all.
Facebook faces tough competition for users in Germany, but the Federal Cartel Office considers it irrelevant that Facebook is on the market with strong competitors such as YouTube, SnapChat and Twitter and that one cannot therefore speak of market dominance.
2. Facebook follows the requirements of the GDPR
The GDPR places enormous demands on all companies operating in the EU, including of course Facebook.
Facebook also meets these requirements by revising the user information on the protection of personal data. In addition, Facebook now explains in more detail what control options users have to protect their data. New and improved privacy settings have also been introduced.
A new tool called “Clear History” will soon be added.
With this function, users will be able to view the information that Facebook receives from websites and services as part of the business tools and disconnect it from their account.
The implementation of the GDPR is subject to the respective data protection authorities, who check whether companies are complying with the requirements.
In the case of Facebook, the Irish data protection authority does this. Now the Federal Cartel Office is a competition authority, not a data protection authority. The office therefore does not have the necessary expertise to make a judgment about Facebook's measures.
The ruling undermines the European legal framework because the Federal Cartel Office makes the level of data protection protection dependent on the size of the company concerned.
3. Cross-service information sharing makes Facebook better and strengthens security
Facebook wants to offer users a customized user experience by presenting them with topics that interest them. To make this possible, Facebook not only uses the information from user profiles, but also the information that the company receives via other services such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
From Facebook's point of view, this is not just data collection, but rather helps Facebook to improve people's security. This includes, for example, preventing abusive behavior across platforms on Facebook and Instagram and blocking accounts that are related to terrorism, child abuse or the manipulation of elections.
Conclusion
These are the positions and arguments that Facebook will represent to the Federal Cartel Office and in court. It is important to Facebook that people and companies in Germany can continue to use its services to their full extent in the future. In addition, Facebook will work to further improve the control and protection of users' information.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

