Meta agrees to adjust data usage, German antitrust agency ends litigation
The Federal Cartel Office (FCO) of Germany's antitrust authority announced the end of the lawsuit against Meta, as Meta agreed to adjust the way personal data is used. FCO President Andreas Mundt stated that users no longer need to consent to unrestricted data collection and distribution when using Facebook. The antitrust battle between Meta and FCO began in 2019, with FCO criticizing its abuse of market dominance and requesting restrictions on data collection. After losing in the European Union's highest court, Meta faced hefty privacy fines and was required to stop transferring user data to the United States
According to the latest information from Zhitong Finance and Economics APP, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) in Germany announced on Thursday that after intense discussions, Meta (META.US) has agreed to take measures to address concerns, leading the German antitrust authority to end the lawsuit against the company's use of personal data. Andreas Mundt, the chairman of the regulatory agency, stated: "The key point is that using Facebook no longer requires consent to collect and distribute data to user accounts without restrictions, even if this data is not actually generated within the Facebook service."
The Cartel Office had previously announced in 2022 that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is considered an operator with significant cross-market competitive influence, subject to the country's latest amended "Antitrust Act".
As early as 2019, Meta and the FCO had engaged in antitrust disputes over privacy issues. The FCO criticized Facebook for abusing its market dominance by collecting and integrating data from multiple channels without users' knowledge, and ordered restrictions on Facebook's data collection activities in Germany.
Last year, Meta lost a case in the European Union's highest court and failed to overturn the German antitrust ruling, which required the American tech company to comprehensively reform its business model. In May last year, Meta was fined a record 1.2 billion euros (equivalent to 1.3 billion U.S. dollars) by the European Union for privacy violations, and after regulatory agencies stated that the company had failed to protect personal information from being stolen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a deadline was set for Meta to stop transferring user data to the United States