NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

281 PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION Germany’s Federal Cartel Office Prohibits Facebook from Combining User Data from Different Sources* Att. Ecem Susoy Uygun Introduction In its decision of 06.02.2019 (“Decision”) 1 , Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) (“FCO”) has imposed certain restric- tions on Facebook 2 in its processing of user data based on its data processing policy and has ordered the termination of its conduct 3 in this respect. Pursuant to the Decision, Facebook is obliged to change the terms of service that is imposed on its users who are based in Ger- many. This Decision is significant since it examines Facebook’s com- prehensive processing of personal data in terms of both data protection and competition law aspects. FCO’s Suspicions of Facebook: Beginning of the Story Until now, individuals have been able to use Facebook’s social network if they agreed to the terms of services stipulating that Face- book can collect data outside of the Facebook website on the internet, or on the smartphone apps, and assign this data to the related Facebook user account 4 . In this respect, not only the data collected on the Face- book website, but also those collected on Facebook-owned websites * Article of February 2019 1 Decision, Case Summary, 15 February 2019. https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/ SharedDocs/Entscheidung/EN/Fallberichte/Missbrauchsaufsicht/2019/B6-22- 16.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3 (Access date: 04.03.2019). 2 Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, USA, Facebook Ireland Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, and Facebook Germany GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. 3 Decision, p. 1. 4 Background information on the Bundeskartellamt’s Facebook proceeding, 7 Feb- ruary 2019, p. 1, https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Publikation/EN/ Pressemitteilungen/2019/07_02_2019_Facebook_FAQs.pdf;jsessionid=A938E8 B12BF636C287E75EDC2CC1AF3E.2_cid378?__blob=publicationFile&v=6