Facebook sues EU antitrust regulator over excessive data requests

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Facebook is suing EU antitrust regulators for seeking information beyond what is necessary, including very personal details, for their investigations into the company’s data and market, the social media group said on Monday. from USA

Facebook has been under the scrutiny of EU competition agents since last year, with one investigation focused on its treasure trove of data and the other on its online market launched in 2016 and used by 800 million Facebook users in 70 countries to buy and sell items.

Since then, the company has released 315,000 documents equivalent to 1.7 million pages to the Commission.

“The exceptionally broad nature of the Commission’s requests means that we should submit predominantly irrelevant documents that have nothing to do with the Commission’s investigations, including highly confidential personal information such as employee medical information, personal financial documents, and private information. about family members of employees, “Facebook Associate General Counsel Tim Lamb said in a statement.

“We believe that such requests should be reviewed by the EU courts.”

The Commission said it would defend its case in court.

EU regulators review documents looking for around 2,500 search phrases that include “big question,” “shutdown,” and “not good for us,” said one person familiar with the matter.

The person said that such search terms could be found in employee health information, performance appraisal, and even company job applications that are not relevant to EU investigations.

In addition to the two lawsuits against the Commission, Facebook is also seeking provisional measures in the Luxembourg-based General Court, the second highest in Europe, to stop such requests for data until judges decide, according to a court document.

(Corrects Tim Lamb’s title in Paragraph 4 from Advocate General to Associate Advocate General)