Germany's cartel office, the Bundeskartellament, has accused Facebook of breaking data protection rules.
The organization announced it had initiated proceedings against Facebook Inc., USA, the Irish branch of the company and Facebook Germany GmbH. The authority has been suspicious that Facebook's conditions violate data protection requirements.
It is the amount of personal data that has the organization on edge. Facebook uses the data it collects to help advertisers target customers on the social media platform.
"Dominant companies are subject to special obligations. These include the use of adequate terms of service as far as these are relevant to the market. For advertising-financed internet services such as Facebook, user data are hugely important. For this reason it is essential to also examine under the aspect of abuse of market power whether the consumers are sufficiently informed about the type and extent of data collected," President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt said.
The organization has said it will investigate whether Facebook has abused its position of prominence as a social media leader by forcing users to agree to unlawful terms and conditions. The Bundeskartellament said that the agreement users have to sign in order to create a Facebook account may be difficult to understand.
Facebook has been the source of suspicion in Europe and currently faces similar investigations and possible sanctions in five European countries.
Facebook denied any wrongdoing on its part.
"We are confident that we comply with the law and we look forward to working with the Federal Cartel Office to answer their questions," said Tina Kulow, the company's director of corporate communication for Northern, Central, Eastern Europe and Benelux.
Last month, Facebook was fined by a Berlin court for not making it clear how users' intellectual property, like photos and videos, would be used by Facebook.
The social media giant has about 1.6 billion users. The company gets advertising money by gathering data on its users and creating ad posts specific to the user. It reportedly has three million advertisers.
The Bundeskartellamt said it will be working with data protection officers, consumer protection associations, the European Commission and other European Union Member States.
