Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, the country’s highest civil court, has overruled a court decision suspending an antitrust authority order which focused on Facebook’s collection and use of data.
The court found that there were “neither serious doubts about Facebook’s dominant position on the German market for social networks, nor that Facebook is abusing the dominant position with the terms of use prohibited by the Bundeskartellamt.”
The Bundeskartellamt decision giving rise to the antitrust order was made in February 2019, where it found that making use of Facebook conditional upon agreement to certain terms about data collection was an abuse of dominance. The decision has been hotly debated in antitrust circles, and if upheld will be seminal in the use of antitrust law to prevent the imposition of onerous data collection clauses on consumers.
The appeal against the Bundeskartellamt decision is pending in the Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf. It is expected to be heard towards the end of this year or in early 2021.
Please contact Tim Cowen should you have any discussions about this development, or antitrust in general.