Facebook must provide access to all documents requested by the European Commission. This was ruled by the Court of Justice of the European Union following complaints by Facebook parent company Meta. Brussels is investigating whether the social network is guilty of unfair competition.
Facebook believes the European Commission is requesting too much staff email traffic and other documents. The Commission does this using search terms.
That is far too broad, according to the US tech company. The retrieved documents would also contain sensitive personal information of employees. The company had therefore gone to the General Court of the European Union.
But the Commission has taken sufficient measures to address those concerns, the General Court ruled. For instance, the Commission housed confidential documents in a so-called virtual data room. Only certain members of the Commission’s investigation team are allowed to view those documents.
According to the court, the Commission does not go beyond what is necessary to conduct the investigation.
Commission investigates abuse of market power
Brussels is investigating whether Facebook is abusing its market power to push competitors away from its buying and selling platform Marketplace. Marketplace is a service on which users can post personal ads, for example if they are looking for stuff or want to sell it.
The Commission is concerned that Facebook users may choose that service over competing services such as Marketplace, eBay and Craigslist because of the company’s promotions.
