Germany's antitrust regulator today launched an investigation into whether Facebook abuses its dominant position in the market to violate data protection laws.
It is no secret that Facebook collects personal information, enabling advertisers to better target people. But before liking friends' posts and sharing cat videos to your timeline, all new users must agree to the company's collection and use of said data by accepting terms of service.
But, as Germany's Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) argued, most people don't actually read those conditions. And even if they did, the inside-baseball jargon can be difficult to comprehend.
Moving forward, the German watchdog will examine whether Facebook's terms and conditions breach data protection provisions, and whether imposing them is an antitrust violation.
"Dominant companies are subject to special obligations," Bundeskartellamt President Andreas Mundt said in a statement. Specifically, the agency is interested in "whether the consumers are sufficiently informed about the type and extent of data collected."
As Reuters pointed out, this is the first formal antitrust investigation for Facebook.
Mundt's office has enlisted the help of data protection officers, consumer protection associations, the European Commission, and authorities in other EU Member States.
Data regulators from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Hamburg, Germany, have opened separate national investigations into the social media giant, Bloomberg reported.
"We are confident that we comply with the law and we look forward to working with the Federal Cartel Office to answer their questions," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement to PCMag.
This is just the latest battle between Facebook and Germany. The Berlin Regional Court this week fined Facebook $109,000 (€100,000) for not adequately complying with an order to update its terms and conditions.
Facebook has also been under fire in Germany over xenophobic and racist comments posted to the social network. The social network in September agreed to partner with the German Justice Ministry to identify and remove offending posts.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.