Meta Platforms on Tuesday lost its fight against a German data curb order that strikes at the center of its business model as Europe’s top court backed the German antitrust watchdog’s power to also investigate privacy breaches.
The ruling from the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) potentially hand antitrust authorities more leeway in Big Tech probes.
The case centered on a challenge by Meta after the German cartel office in 2019 ordered the social media giant to stop collecting users’ data without their consent, calling the practice an abuse of market power.
At issue was whether the German antitrust agency overstepped its authority by utilizing its antitrust power to deal with data protection concerns, that are the remit of national data protection authorities.
Meta harvests user data for behavioral promoting, a business model common to Big Tech.
Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, challenged the finding, prompting a German court to hunt advice from the CJEU.
In response to the ruling a Meta spokesperson said: “We’re evaluating the Court’s decision and may have more to say sooner or later.”
The CJEU judges said regarding antitrust investigations that “it might be mandatory for the competition authority of the member state concerned also to look at whether that undertaking’s conduct complies with rules apart from those referring to competition law.
The CJEU, nevertheless, said antitrust regulators must “think about any decision or investigation by the competent supervisory authority pursuant to that regulation.”
The German cartel office welcomed the ruling.
“Data is a decisive consider establishing market power. The usage of the very personal data of consumers by the big web corporations will also be abusive under antitrust law,” its head, Andreas Mundt, said.
His counterpart on the French competition agency, Benoit Coeure, in a tweet called the ruling a landmark decision on data protection as a contest parameter.
Thomas Graf, a partner at law firm Cleary Gottlieb, was more cautious on whether antitrust authorities would need to go into the small print of privacy law.
“You continue to need to clarify why it’s relevant for antitrust law and reveal restrictive effects and abuse, and they’ll have to coordinate with the GDPR authorities,” he said.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a privacy and security law that imposes obligations on organizations anywhere which goal or collect data related to people within the EU.
“Are antitrust authorities going to turn out to be GDPR regulators? I don’t think so,” Graf said.
Privacy activist Max Schrems, who has filed complaints about Meta, said the judgment may have a positive impact on his pending litigation with the corporate.
