A top German court on Tuesday ordered Facebook to stop merging data collected through its Whatsapp and Instagram subsidiaries or other websites unless users explicitly agree, in a legal victory for competition authorities.
Germany's Federal Cartel Office (FCO) had told Facebook to rein in the data collecting in a landmark decision in 2019, but the social media giant appealed the order.
In a fast-track proceeding on Tuesday, Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) sided with the FCO watchdog in finding that Facebook was abusing its dominant position to force users to consent to all their data being collected.
"Facebook does not allow for any choice," presiding judge Peter Meier-Beck said in the Karlsruhe courtroom.
He said the Silicon Valley company must comply with the order while its appeal is pending in a lower court.
It is a major setback for the social media giant, which has long been under scrutiny in privacy-conscious Germany.
Facebook insisted however there would be "no immediate changes" for users in Germany and stressed that the main appeals proceedings were still ongoing.
"We will continue to defend our position that there is no anti-trust abuse," a spokesman said.
The FCO criticised Facebook in February 2019 for making the "unrestricted" data harvesting part of the website's terms of use. That meant people had to tick the box or opt out of being on Facebook altogether.
The personal data picked up through Facebook's own platform, Whatsapp, Instagram and third-party websites serve to build up a user's profile for the purposes of targeted advertising, a key income source for the group.
The Federal Cartel Office ordered the tech giant to ..
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