Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has decided to prohibit Facebook from collecting the data of users from its services WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as third-party websites with Facebook integration. By not obtaining sufficient user consent for collecting the data from other apps and sites, the company abused its dominant position in the market and violated EU personal data protection law, the German regulator said.
Data can only be assigned to Facebook from WhatsApp and Instagram with the user’s voluntary consent, the Bundeskartellamt said in a press release. WhatsApp and Instagram can continue to collect data without assigning it to Facebook user accounts, and Facebook may collect and process data from users of the Facebook social network.
Facebook disagreed with the conclusions of the regulator's investigation and said it intends to appeal the decision. The Bundeskartellamt underestimates the "fierce competition" that Facebook faces in Germany, misinterprets its compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and "undermines the mechanisms European law provides for ensuring consistent data protection standards across the EU", the company said.
The regulator's decision is not final, and Facebook has one month to file an appeal.
Facebook has a dominant position in the German market with 23 million daily active users, 32 million monthly active users and a market share of more than 95 percent in daily active users and more than 80 percent in monthly active users, the Bundeskartellamt said. As a dominant market player, Facebook is "subject to special obligations under competition law", the regulator said.
Notably, ticking a box to agree to all Facebook's terms and conditions is not sufficient in terms of obtaining the legal consent required for the company's extensive processing of personal data, the German agency said. Users must agree to the terms or be excluded from the social network, a difficult situation that cannot be considered voluntary consent, as required under the law. Furthermore, many consumers are unaware that merely by visiting a website with a Facebook 'like' button they may already being sharing data with the company.
