EU: Mundt says Facebook data is an antitrust issue

If Facebook’s terms and conditions on data access are not in line with data protection and privacy rules, that should be an issue for competition agencies to deal with, the head of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has said.

While the EU legislators urge action, Zuckerberg’s business is already under antitrust scrutiny in Germany. The Federal Cartel Office sees Facebook as the dominant social network in the country and is examining if it uses that power to force users to sign up to unfair privacy terms on how data is collected and processed.

“The limitless consent that Facebook is asking for is an inappropriate term and condition by a dominant company that the user cannot escape,” Andreas Mundt, the cartel office’s chief, told at a Rome conference on Tuesday, May 22. He continued by saying that a user “has no choice if he wants to use Facebook.”

Competition regulators are the ones “who can deal with these companies” and “expectations are high,” Mundt said.

“”I think we can do a lot but we cannot do everything”” and new laws may be needed for some issues that online business models have raised, he said.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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