Facebook has won a preliminary ruling at a Hamburg court against an order by the city’s representative for data protection and freedom, Johannes Caspar, to allow users to sign up to the social network under a pseudonym. The court ruled that German law doesn’t apply to Facebook’s privacy policy because its European headquarters are in Ireland. The applicable law is that “of the European Union member state that is most closely related to the data processing at stake," the court said, according to Bloomberg, adding that "As to the real-name rule, this is Facebook’s Ireland branch."
The case arose after a user complained that Facebook blocked her account due to a pseudonym. Facebook changed the profile to her real name against her will and asked for a digital copy of her identity card or passport. Caspar said the behaviour showed that Facebook disregarded national legislation even though it was economically active in Germany. The preliminary ruling is subject to appeal, although the city’s data watchdog has yet to confirm whether it will proceed.
The court decision comes just a day after the German Federal Cartel Office initiated proceedings into whether Facebook abused its possible market dominance by forcing customers to agree to terms allowing the use of their data. The action is part of a coordinated effort started in 2014 by several EU regulators, including the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Germany.
