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Düsseldorf (dpa) - In the dispute over Facebook's data collection practice, the Düsseldorf Regional Court considers an order by the Federal Cartel Office to restrict the processing of user data by the online network to be partially illegal.
The presiding judge of the 1st Cartel Senate, Jürgen Kühnen, said on Wednesday that the competition authorities are relying too much on German law in their decision and neglecting EU law.
In addition, it is quite possible that Facebook has a legitimate interest in a significant part of the data processed.
The Bundeskartellamt entered new legal territory in 2019 and prohibited Facebook from linking user data from its services such as Instagram and Whatsapp or from websites of other providers to their Facebook accounts without the express permission of the users.
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"It is a kind of internal unbundling of data processing on Facebook," said the Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt at the time.
In the future, consumers could prevent Facebook from collecting and using their data without restriction.
And Facebook shouldn't exclude him from its services if he does so.
However, Facebook has not yet had to implement the requirements.
The US group rejects the allegations of the competition watchdog: Facebook is popular.
But there can be no question of market dominance.
Because the company competes with many other offers such as Youtube, Snapchat or Twitter for the attention and time of the users.
Facebook vehemently contradicts the thesis that the group has abused its market position.
The terms and conditions and the method of data processing correspond to the current practice also with Facebook competitors.
The transparency of data processing vis-à-vis Facebook users and the options for restricting certain data uses have increased over time, not decreased.
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The dispute between the Federal Cartel Office and Facebook had already preoccupied the judiciary for the past two years.
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court had already suspended the execution of the cartel office orders in mid-2019 in an urgent procedure, as it had massive doubts about the arguments of the competition authorities.
But the Federal Court of Justice overturned this decision in the middle of last year.
The presiding judge of the Cartel Senate at the BGH, Peter Meier-Beck, said that there were no serious doubts about the dominant position of Facebook on the German market for social networks, nor about the fact that Facebook prohibited this dominant position with the one from the Cartel Office Misuse of the terms of use ».
The main proceedings before the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court are now about a full review of the legality of the Federal Cartel Office's decision.
The Düsseldorf Senate also criticized the decision of the Federal Court of Justice.
The BGH based its decision on a different argumentation under competition law than the Bundeskartellamt.
It is doubtful whether this is permissible.
The Düsseldorf Senate expressly emphasized that it did not feel bound by the factual or legal requirements of the BGH decision.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210324-99-953048 / 2