Facebook lost a lawsuit Tuesday in the European Union’s top court over a groundbreaking German antitrust ruling that limits the way the company uses data for advertising.
The European Court of Justice has said competition watchdogs can look into whether companies such as Facebook adhere to the continent’s strict privacy rules, which are usually imposed by national data privacy regulators.
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The court ruled that antitrust authorities can take into account any breaches of data privacy rules while investigating whether the tech giants are abusing their market dominance by driving out competitors.
“We are assessing the court’s decision and will have more to say in due course,” Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said in a statement.
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A court upheld a 2019 German antitrust ruling that threatens Meta’s business model for selling targeted ads to users based on data gleaned from how time is spent on its services.
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Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, challenged the measure, prompting German authorities to seek the opinion of the Court of Justice, the highest court in the 27-nation bloc.
