By Foo Yun Chee

LUXEMBOURG, (Reuters) – Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), the owner of Facebook (NASDAQ?), has criticised a German landmark antitrust order that restricted its data collection. It was criticized as ‘clearly flawed’ which violates EU data protection regulations.

Meta’s harsh criticism of German antitrust watchdog stemmed from the 2019 statement by the German regulator that Meta had said Meta was abusing its market power to collect users’ data and without their consent. The German regulator ordered Meta to end this practice.

Competition enforcers claimed that data harvesting included browsing behavior when users visited websites with Facebook like buttons. Even if the user did not click on those buttons,

This case highlights the increasing regulatory scrutiny of U.S. technology giants worldwide and how they can be reined in.

The issue in the German case is, however, whether or not the watchdog overstepped its authority and used its antitrust power for data protection issues.

Meta appealed against the German court’s decision and sought advice from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Hans-Georg Kamann, Meta lawyer, stated that the German antitrust law was “clearly flawed”, with its “far-reaching restriction on Facebook data processing”.

He criticized the German watchdog’s inability to cooperate with the Irish data privacy regulator that oversees Facebook, given its European headquarters are located in Ireland.

Kamann stated that the Bundeskartellamt had openly violated both substantive and procedural GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) laws.

Joerg Northdurft was the lawyer representing the German watchdog. He said that there had been communication with regulators in data protection.

German authorities defended antitrust decisions, declaring that competition enforcers must conduct data protection assessments as part of their investigation into online marketplaces using users’ data for market power.

Philipp Krueger, a German lawyer said that the German order was for “protecting free competition”, and not data protection.

C-252/21 Meta Platforms and Others is the case.