EU Judgment in Case C-252/21 Meta Platforms and others: User conditions for a social network)

Tuesday 4th July 2023

Judgment in Case C-252/21 Meta Platforms and others (User conditions for a social network)

09:00

(Approximation of Laws)

Meta Platforms is the owner of the Facebook online social network. In order to use this social network, users must accept Facebook’s general terms and conditions when they register, which refer to the company’s policies on the use of data and cookies. Under these policies, in addition to the data that users provide directly when they register, Meta Platforms also collects data from other online services provided by the Facebook group, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta Platforms links this data to the Facebook account of the users concerned and uses it in particular for advertising purposes. The business model of this social network is based on financing through online advertising, which is tailored to its individual users. Such advertising is technically made possible by the automated compilation of detailed profiles of users of the network and online services offered at Facebook group level.

By decision of 6 February 2019, the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Competition Authority, Germany) prohibited Meta Platforms, on the one hand, from making the use of the Facebook social network by private users resident in Germany subject to the processing of their personal data in the general terms and conditions in force at the time and, on the other hand, from processing such data without their consent.

In addition, the Federal Competition Authority required the company to amend its General Terms and Conditions to make it clear that the data in question would not be collected, linked to Facebook user accounts or used without the consent of the users concerned. Finally, the authority emphasised that such consent was not valid when it constituted a condition for using the social network. It based its decision on the fact that the processing of the data in question, which did not comply with the GDPR, constituted an abuse of Meta Platforms’ dominant position on the online social networking market.

Meta Platforms appealed against this decision to the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf, Germany). The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court referred questions to the Court for a preliminary ruling because it had doubts as to whether the competition authorities could monitor the compliance of personal data processing with the requirements set out in the RGPD and as to the interpretation and application of certain provisions of that regulation.

Background Documents C-252/21