BRUSSELS (Reuters), – Thursday’s ruling by the European Union’s top court indicated that Germany’s consumer organization could challenge Facebook’s parent Meta (NASDAQ::) data privacy.

In the Court of Justice of the European Union’s verdict, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations [and Associations] (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband] can request an injunction to stop Meta Platforms Ireland from a German court.

Meta is accused of violating rules regarding data privacy, unfair competition, and consumer protection in relation to third-party games that are made available for free to Facebook users.

Certain personal information was obtained by the gaming companies.

Meta did not respond immediately to my request for comment.

CJEU was referred to by the German court. It asked if a consumer body can still bring legal action against data privacy violators under EU data protection law that became effective in 2018.

CJEU observed that although the German court considered the action to be well-founded and valid, the CJEU questioned its admissibility.

The EU court found that the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), was not incompatible with national laws allowing consumer protection groups to initiate legal proceedings.

The German Federation, a consumer organization, was also included in this definition. It could be used to bring GDPR-related proceedings because it was acting in public interest.

The court could bring the action, but it would not have to identify who or what caused them harm.