German court turns to top European judges for help on Facebook data case (updated)

Helix BioMedix

24/03/2021 15:35

(Recasts with referral to European Court)
    By Matthias Inverardi
    DUESSELDORF, March 24 (Reuters) - A court in Germany hearing
an appeal by Facebook  FB.O  against data curbs imposed by the
country's antitrust watchdog said on Wednesday it would seek
guidance from the European Court of Justice on the case.
    The move effectively defers a verdict in the two-year-old
court battle and casts a spotlight on whether Germany's Federal
Cartel Office may have exceeded its authority in seeking to
apply competition law to the issue of data protection.
    In the European Union, of which Germany is the largest
member, issues around technology and personal privacy are
covered by a rulebook introduced in 2018 called the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR).
    "The question of whether Facebook is abusing its dominant
position ... cannot be decided without referring it to the
European Court," the Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said
in a written opinion.
    Cartel office chief Andreas Mundt ordered Facebook in
February 2019 to curb its data collection, saying the world's
largest social network had abused its market dominance to
harvest the information of its users without their consent.
    This included gathering data about users' browsing habits
when they visited a website with a Facebook 'like' button on it
- even if an internet surfer didn't click on that button.
    Facebook appealed that decision and, in the last significant
development in the case, the German Federal Court reinstated the
restrictions last June pending a resolution of the high-stakes
legal battle.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2E058F
    In its opinion, the panel of judges chaired by Juergen
Kuehnen found fault with Facebook over its collection of data on
the social network and other applications, including WhatsApp,
Instagram and Oculus.
    But it also questioned whether the cartel office exceeded
its remit, whether it had incorrectly targeted different
Facebook corporate entities, and whether it had given the
company a fair hearing before acting.
    "The Higher Regional Court today expressed doubts about the
legality of the Federal Cartel Office's decision and decided to
refer questions to the European Court of Justice," Facebook said
in a statement. 
    "In our opinion, the order of the Federal Cartel Office also
violates European law."

 (Reporting by Matthias Inverardi. Writing by Douglas Busvine.
Editing by Emma Thomasson and Mark Potter)
 ((douglas.busvine@tr.com; +49 30 220 133 562;))