Germany: Competition authorities investigate Facebook

German competition authorities have launched proceedings against Facebook to investigate if the social network abused its market power by infringing data protection rules.

A statement by the Bundeskartellamt said there was an initial suspicion that Facebook’s conditions of use were in violation of German data protection provisions.

“Facebook’s use of unlawful terms and conditions could represent an abusive imposition of unfair conditions on users,” the statement said.

The Bundeskartellamt said it would examine a possible connection between Facebook’s dominant position in social networks and the use of such clauses.

The issue of data protection has grown in importance as internet companies such as Facebook and Google have become big, data-driven businesses. How to regulate the industry as it has become more pervasive is a concern for European regulators and data protection authorities.

The Bundeskartellamt said Facebook collected large amounts of personal user data from various sources and, by creating user profiles, enabled its customers to use more targeted advertising. It said users had to first agree to Facebook collecting and using their data when they accepted its terms of service, but it was difficult for them “to understand and assess the scope of the agreement”.

Full Content: The New York Times

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