German competition authority orders Facebook to restrict personal data collection

Facebook must acquire consent to collect and combine personal data from different sources

Germany's Bundeskartellamt, or Federal Cartel Office, has ruled that Facebook cannot combine user data from multiple sources without users' explicit consent.

The ruling follows a three-year investigation into the company by Germany's competition authority, and doesn't just apply to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instragram, but also third-party sources, including websites embedded with the Facebook ‘like' and ‘share' buttons. The latter are used by Facebook to track the activities of non-Facebook users across the internet.

"In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts," Cartel head Andreas Mundt said in a statement.

"If users do not consent, Facebook may not exclude them from its services and must refrain from collecting and merging data from different sources."

The German antitrust organisation justified its probe on the grounds that, with 23 million daily users in Germany, Facebook accounts for around 95 per cent of the social media market in the country.

"Facebook's conduct represents above all a so-called exploitative abuse," the authority added in its statement. "The only choice the user has is either to accept the comprehensive combination of data or to refrain from using the social network," Mundt added. "In such a difficult situation the user's choice cannot be referred to as voluntary consent."

Facebook, which has been given 12 months to comply with the landmark order, said that it would appeal the ruling. "The Bundeskartellamt's decision misapplies German competition law to set different rules that apply to only one company," the California firm said, adding that "we face fierce competition in Germany" from the likes of YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter.

Regardless of such action, Facebook is still planning to merge its messaging platforms, combining Instagram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp onto a single underlying platform, which the company claims will support end-to-end encryption.