Instagram and WhatsApp: European Court to rule on Facebook's data collection frenzy
In the dispute between the German Federal Cartel Office and Facebook over the sharing of user data, the European Court of Justice is now to rule. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is to rule on the extent to which Facebook may merge user data with its other services Whatsapp and Instagram. This was decided by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court on Wednesday in a dispute between Facebook and the German Federal Cartel Office. The authority had prohibited the social network operator from demanding blanket consent from its users to collect and link data without offering the alternative of less extensive data use. Both parties have been disputing the February 2019 decision for more than two years. After the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled in favor of the competition watchdogs in summary proceedings in June 2020, the Higher Regional Court now had to examine the case more thoroughly in the main proceedings. This also involves the question of whether the terms of use of Facebook servi...