German Court Says Facebook Violated Consumer-Data Rules -- WSJ
January 25 2020 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Germano
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (January 25, 2020).
BERLIN -- A state court in Berlin ruled that some user terms set
by Facebook Inc. violated consumer-data protection law, in the
latest example of back-and-forth between companies and courts to
define the boundaries of the European Union's extensive privacy
rules.
The ruling Friday, from the highest court in the city-state of
Berlin, is a regional interpretation of the EU's General Data
Protection Regulation, which after nearly two years of being in
effect still isn't uniformly enforced across Europe.
The Berlin ruling partially upheld a complaint from the
Federation of German Consumer Organizations, finding that certain
Facebook terms violated a principle of GDPR requiring that
"informed consent" be given by users before their data is
collected.
The cited terms include a default setting to allow search
engines to display a link to a user's Facebook profile, and a
requirement that users allow Facebook to use their name and profile
picture for commercial purposes.
The consumer group bringing the suit, known in German by the
acronym VZBV, said the ruling indicated that entities like itself
could seek legal enforcement of GDPR without the involvement of an
affected consumer.
"The Chamber of Justice has made it clear that consumer advice
centers can take action against violations of the GDPR," said Heiko
Dünkel, counsel at VZBV.
Part of the advocacy group's complaint, a challenge to
Facebook's slogan that the social network "is and remains free" of
cost, was struck down by the court.
Facebook said the case dated back to 2015 and terms cited by the
VZBZ in its complaint "have long ceased to exist" as the company
had updated its user settings.
"Independent of these German proceedings, we substantially
revised our Terms of Service and Data Policy in the spring of
2018," Facebook said.
Enforcement of GDPR, particularly in Germany where privacy
enjoys strong legal protection, has proved onerous for companies.
Last February, Germany's Federal Cartel Office instructed Facebook
to stop combining data it collects across its suite of products,
which include WhatsApp and Instagram, arguing that the practice was
anticompetitive.
That ruling was later overturned on appeal to a higher court,
which found insufficient proof that Facebook's data collection
methods violated competition law.
Facebook has argued in recent months that data is not a finite
resource capable of monopolization, like oil, but something that
can be both shared and stored. The Menlo Park, Calif., company is
facing antitrust scrutiny by state and federal authorities in the
U.S. as well as by the European Commission, the EU's enforcement
arm.
Write to Sara Germano at sara.germano@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 25, 2020 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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