Facebook fined €100,000 by German Court

On February 29, 2015, the Berlin Regional Court fined Facebook, Inc (Facebook) €100,000 after an affiliate failed to make court-ordered changes to its terms and conditions for German users.

In 2010, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV), a consumer advocacy group, sued Facebook over its “Friend Finder” feature as well as the intellectual property licensing clause in its terms and conditions (IP provision).  VZBV alleged that the “Friend Finder” feature imported all of the user’s contacts without sufficiently notifying them, and that the IP provision did not clearly explain the extent to which users’ intellectual property could be used by Facebook.  The court hearing the matter agreed, and in March, 2012, Facebook was ordered to revise these aspects of the website.  The order was upheld by an appeals court in 2014.

Facebook made changes, but the Berlin Regional Court ruled that the changes to the IP provision were not adequate to comply with the order and fined Facebook.  As of December 9, 2015, Facebook’s terms and conditions for German users contained the following clause: “[users] grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook”.

Following this decision, Germany’s competition watchdog, the Federal Cartel Office, opened an investigation of Facebook for suspected abuse of market power.  The investigation is centred on whether Facebook properly informs users about the type and extent of personal data that it collects from them.

For news report on this case, follow these links:

http://tinyurl.com/zasp9c7

http://tinyurl.com/hb7mhgj

http://tinyurl.com/hkeqdmt