Virtual reality: Oculus stops selling headphones in Germany

The Oculus company, which belongs to Facebook, no longer sells its virtual reality headsets like the Rift S and Quest in Germany. Reason: “Conversations with the German regulatory authorities”. Oculus does not provide further information.

Anyone who already owns an Oculus VR headset should be able to continue using it without restrictions. There should be no problems with devices that have already been delivered to retailers, either.

However, Oculus doesn’t want to ship any more headsets retail just yet. There could be functional restrictions with devices imported from abroad; Oculus is not more accurate. The “Oculus for Business” commercial customer program is not affected by the sales ban.

Maybe the sales stop is for Facebook. The suspicion: In mid-August 2020, Oculus announced that new VR customers will need a Facebook account to use the headsets starting in October 2020. So far, a separate account at Oculus has been enough. Existing customers will also have to use Facebook from the end of 2022.

Your data protection officer may not agree to this change and the associated data sharing between Oculus and Facebook. However, Heise.de received a statement from the Federal Cartel Office, according to which at least there were no discussions with the companies there.

Oculus Quest All-in-One Virtual Reality Gaming Headset – 128GB

The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, who is responsible for Facebook, also writes that it has not yet taken action on the matter, but now wants to pass the matter on to the European supervisory authority.

For many headphone users like the Quest, the mandatory requirement for a Facebook account had caused outrage. When it took over Oculus in 2014, Facebook said such a link, including data sharing, would not happen.