Germany's antitrust watchdog, the Bundeskartellamt, is assessing a potential abuse of dominance by Facebook Inc. in the collection of third-party data from its users, according to a Dec. 19 announcement.
The German regulator believes that the social media company allows the use of the platform on the condition that it would be allowed to "limitlessly amass every kind of data" through third-party websites. The data is, in turn, merged with the user's Facebook account.
The third-party websites include platforms Facebook owns, such as WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as other websites and apps with embedded Facebook APIs.
The company is said to be implementing "inappropriate" terms of service that "violate data protection provisions to the disadvantage of its users," the Bundeskartellamt said.
"[W]e are not convinced that users have given their effective consent to Facebook's data tracking and the merging of data into their Facebook account. The extent and form of data collection violate mandatory European data protection principles," according to Bundeskartellamt President Andreas Mundt.
The Bundeskartellamt has advised Facebook of the investigation in writing. The regulator is also closely working with data protection authorities in line with the probe.
