Facebook lost a legal challenge in the EU’s top court regarding a German antitrust decision that restricted how the company can utilize data for advertising.
Facebook Struggles In Europe
Competition watchdogs have been granted the authority by the European Court of Justice to assess whether companies such as Facebook adhere to the rigorous privacy regulations of the continent. Typically, these regulations are upheld by national data privacy regulators.
The verdict of the court allows antitrust regulators to consider any breaches of data privacy regulations while scrutinizing whether the tech giants are exploiting their market power to eliminate competition.
Regarding the court ruling, a representative from Meta stated: “We are evaluating the Court’s decision and will have more to say in due course.”.
The German Federal Cartel Office expressed its satisfaction with the verdict.
“Data is a decisive factor in establishing market power. The use of the very personal data of consumers by the large internet companies can also be abusive under antitrust law,” its head, Andreas Mundt, said.
According to Andreas Mundt, president of the German Federal Cartel Office, the decision of the EU court is set to greatly impact the data economy’s business models.
