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According to leading competition economists, the US company Facebook has to adjust to stricter restrictions in Germany.
The reason for this is a new regulation of the German competition laws, explained the Düsseldorf economist Justus Haucap to WELT AM SONNTAG.
"It should only be a matter of time before Facebook is declared a platform with paramount cross-market importance for competition under the new Paragraph 19a of the Act against Restraints of Competition." Then the Cartel Office could prohibit Facebook from combining data from different services, to expand its market power, for example in advertising on the Internet.
Jürgen Kühling, Chairman of the Federal Monopoly Commission, confirmed this impression to WELT AM SONNTAG: “When my 'friends' are on Facebook, it doesn't help me that I can also use Telegram, as the services are not interoperable.
The same applies to WhatsApp, where it doesn't help me that there is the data protection-friendly signal as long as my family and friends are not there. "
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This is a key difference to webmail services, for example.
Kühling therefore stated: The assumption of a dominant market position seems plausible at the present time.
Both experts expect the cartel office to have good cards in the dispute with Facebook to further restrict the group's data usage, at least in Germany.
These new rules could become a model for Europe.
You can read the entire research in WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.
Source: WELT AM SONNTAG