Facebooks data collection in Germany caught in antitrust spotlight
James Panichi, managing editor for Australasia, and Matthew Newman, chief correspondent in Europe, discuss a ground-breaking antitrust case at the intersection of data-protection and competition law. Matthew describes how the German competition authority has charged Facebook with using its network effects to \u201clock in\u201d its users and gather data from websites outside Facebook without the user\u2019s knowledge or agreement. Facebook is accused of abusing its market power by merging this data with users\u2019 profiles. This harms consumers because they don\u2019t have control over how their personal data is used. The German authority plans to issue a final decision before the summer. Matthew describes why the case is unusual and not likely to be replicated by other competition authorities.