Facebook disputes some of the European Commission's requests as irrelevant and relating to the privacy of its employees, the American group said on Monday. This is currently the subject of an investigation from Brussels into possible anti-competitive practices.
The social media giant claims to cooperate with the authorities, but "the exceptionally broad nature of the Commission's requests means that we should provide them with documents unrelated to their investigation," said Tim Lamb, competition lawyer at Facebook . He mentions in particular requests for "highly sensitive personal information such as medical or financial information, and private information on the families of employees."
The privacy of employees threatened?
"We believe that such requests should be examined by European courts", concludes the lawyer. According to a Financial Times article on Monday, Facebook has launched a lawsuit against the European Union (EU), which the company accuses of invading the privacy of its employees.
She believes that these documents can only be shared if certain rules are respected, but ensures that the Commission has rejected its offers so far. The EU is investigating possible practices aimed at preventing any competition from companies like Facebook or Apple.
The European Commission is stepping up its offensives against dominant digital platforms, in a context of deadlock in international negotiations on their taxation. Facebook says it has already sent 315,000 documents related to the antitrust investigation this year, or 1.7 million pages.
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