BERLIN — The German cartel office will appeal a regional court’s decision to suspend restrictions it had imposed on Facebook’s data collection practices to the Federal Court of Justice, Germany’s highest court.

“We are convinced that with the available antitrust laws we can take regulatory action,” Andreas Mundt, the head of the Federal Cartel Office, said in a statement. “To clarify these questions we file an appeal at the Federal Court of Justice.” </s> BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court on Monday issued an interim injunction suspending a cartel office decision in February which sought to restrict Facebook’s data collection practices in Germany.

“The suspension of the order means that Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being,” the Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said in its ruling.

It added that a final decision about the appeal will be made at a later stage. </s> BERLIN, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Germany's cartel office said on Monday it would appeal a regional court decision to suspend restrictions it had placed on Facebook's data collection practices to the country's highest court.

A court in Duesseldorf had earlier suspended a February decision by the Federal Cartel Office to order Facebook to restrict its data collection in Germany.

Facebook appealed February's landmark decision by the cartel office that the world's largest social network abused its dominant market position to gather information about users without their consent.

The Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said in its ruling earlier on Monday: "The suspension of the order means that Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being."

The court said its temporary injunction removing restrictions on Facebook's data gathering would be valid until it had made a final decision on the company's appeal.

Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is at the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fueled by last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users' consent.

The antitrust watchdog objected in particular to how Facebook pools data from third-party apps - including its own WhatsApp and Instagram - and its online tracking of people who aren't members through Facebook 'like' or 'share' buttons.

Last month, Facebook said it would improve user data safeguards as part of a settlement to resolve a U.S. government probe into its privacy practices, which resulted in a $5 billion fine. </s> BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s cartel office said on Monday it would appeal a regional court decision to suspend restrictions it had placed on Facebook’s data collection practices to the country’s highest court.

FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of Facebook logo in this illustration picture, April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

A court in Duesseldorf had earlier suspended a February decision by the Federal Cartel Office to order Facebook (FB.O) to restrict its data collection in Germany.

“We are convinced that with the available antitrust laws we can take regulatory action,” Andreas Mundt, the head of the cartel office, said in a statement. “To clarify these questions we will file an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice.”

Facebook appealed February’s landmark decision by the cartel office that the world’s largest social network abused its dominant market position to gather information about users without their consent.

The Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said in its ruling earlier on Monday: “The suspension of the order means that Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being.”

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, declined to comment.

The court said its temporary injunction removing restrictions on Facebook’s data gathering would be valid until it had made a final decision on the company’s appeal.

Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is at the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fueled by last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users’ consent.

The antitrust watchdog objected in particular to how Facebook pools data from third-party apps - including its own WhatsApp and Instagram - and its online tracking of people who aren’t members through Facebook ‘like’ or ‘share’ buttons.

Last month, Facebook said it would improve user data safeguards as part of a settlement to resolve a U.S. government probe into its privacy practices, which resulted in a $5 billion fine. </s> A court in Dusseldorf earlier suspended a February decision by the Federal Cartel Office ordering Facebook to restrict data collection in Germany.

"We are convinced that with the available antitrust laws we can take regulatory action," said Andreas Mundt, the head of the cartel office.

"To clarify these questions we will file an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice."

Facebook appealed February's landmark decision that the social network abused its dominant market position to gather information about users without consent.

The Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said in its ruling earlier on Monday: "The suspension of the order means that Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being."

The court said its temporary injunction removing restrictions on Facebook's data gathering would be valid until it had made a final decision on the company's appeal.

Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is at the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fuelled by last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users' consent.

Germany's watchdog in particular objected to how Facebook pools data from third-party apps - including its own WhatsApp and Instagram - and its online tracking of people who aren't members through Facebook 'like' or 'share' buttons. </s> A court in Duesseldorf had earlier suspended a February decision by the Federal Cartel Office to order Facebook to restrict its data collection in Germany.

"We are convinced that with the available antitrust laws we can take regulatory action," Andreas Mundt, the head of the cartel office, said in a statement. "To clarify these questions we will file an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice."

Facebook appealed February's landmark decision by the cartel office that the world's largest social network abused its dominant market position to gather information about users without their consent.

The Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said in its ruling earlier on Monday: "The suspension of the order means that Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being."

The court said its temporary injunction removing restrictions on Facebook's data gathering would be valid until it had made a final decision on the company's appeal.

Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is at the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fueled by last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users' consent.

The antitrust watchdog objected in particular to how Facebook pools data from third-party apps - including its own WhatsApp and Instagram - and its online tracking of people who aren't members through Facebook 'like' or 'share' buttons.

Last month, Facebook said it would improve user data safeguards as part of a settlement to resolve a U.S. government probe into its privacy practices, which resulted in a $5 billion fine. </s> A German court on Monday temporarily suspended a February decision by the cartel office to order Facebook to restrict its data collection practices in Germany.

BERLIN: A German court on Monday temporarily suspended a February decision by the cartel office to order Facebook to restrict its data collection practices in Germany.

"The suspension of the order means that Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being," the Higher Regional Court in Duesseldorf said in its ruling.

Facebook appealed the landmark decision by the cartel office that the world's largest social network abused its market dominance to gather information about users without their consent. It ordered Facebook to curb its data collection practices.

Facebook declined to comment on the court decision. The cartel office said it would issue a statement on the decision later on Monday.

The court said its temporary injunction removing restrictions on Facebook's data gathering would be valid until it had made a final decision on the company's appeal.

Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is at the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fueled by last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users' consent.

In its February decision, the antitrust watchdog objected in particular to how Facebook pools data on people from third-party apps - including its own WhatsApp and Instagram - and its online tracking of people who aren't even members through Facebook 'like' or 'share' buttons.

Last month, Facebook said it will improve safeguards on user data as part of a settlement to resolve a U.S. government probe into its privacy practices, which resulted in a US$5 billion fine. </s> BERLIN -- Facebook Inc. won an appeal to a German antitrust edict regarding how it collects user data across its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, an initial victory for the social-media giant as it faces wide regulatory scrutiny in Europe and the U.S.

The Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf on Monday suspended an order of the German Federal Cartel Office to stop Facebook from combining data it collects about users across its platforms, as well on as third-party apps and websites. In a statement, the court said it had "serious doubts" about the legal basis for the cartel office's decision, issued earlier this year.

"Even if the contested data breached data-protection rules, that would not be an infringement of competition law at the same time," the court said.

In February, Germany's cartel office issued a landmark decision against Facebook, arguing that the social network abused its dominant position in the market by collecting data about its users. The antitrust authority said at the time it planned to use its decision as a basis for further crackdowns against other internet companies.

Federal Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt said Monday it planned to appeal the Düsseldorf ruling to the Federal Court of Justice, saying his office disagreed with the court's findings on the legality of competition law.

"Data and data handling are decisive factors for competition in the digital economy," Mr. Mundt said in a statement. "These legal issues are highly significant for the future state of competition in the digital economy. We are convinced that we can act in this area based on the existing antitrust law."

Facebook declined to comment on the ruling Monday. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is facing increased regulatory pressure at home and abroad for its privacy and data-collection practices. The Irish Data Protection Commission said earlier this month it was close to concluding an investigation into Facebook's compliance with the European Union's new privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation. In July, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reached a $5 billion settlement with Facebook to conclude a long-running probe into how it handles privacy concerns. </s> BERLIN: Facebook scored an interim victory when a German court Monday temporarily suspended restrictions the national competition watchdog had placed on the social network's data collection practices.



The Federal Competition Office (FCO) immediately said it would appeal the ruling by the Duesseldorf regional court before the Federal Court of Justice.

The FCO had found in February that Facebook abused its dominant market position to gather information about users for their advertising business.

It ruled that users should be asked for consent before data collected by the group's subsidiaries Whatsapp and Instagram and on third-party websites was combined with their social network account.

The body also ruled that Facebook could not shut out users who refused, and gave the US company four months to present a "concept" for compliance and a year to implement it, or face heavy fines.

Facebook responded by saying it would appeal the FCO´s decision.

On Monday the Duesseldorf court found it had "serious doubts" about the FCO's February ruling.



"Even if the data processing in question infringed data protection provisions, this would not at the same time constitute a breach of competition law," the court said in a statement.

It therefore issued a temporary injunction and ruled that, pending a final settlement of the issue, "Facebook does not have to implement the decision of the Federal Cartel Office for the time being".
The Federal Cartel Office in Germany announced that it will appeal a decision by a regional court that suspended its restrictions on Facebook's activities. The appeal will bring the dispute, over underlying privacy issues, to the attention of the country's highest court.