Facebook may be antitrust’s next target

Heightened scrutiny: Germany’s Federal Cartel Office probe comes as Facebook, which now has two billion members and made more than US27bil in revenue last year, confronts heightened regulatory scrutiny in Europe. — AFP

BRUSSELS: Facebook Inc’s small print may be the next big thing in European antitrust as watchdogs home in on how the world’s biggest social network collects information from users that helps generate vast advertising revenues.

Germany’s federal cartel office is examining whether Facebook essentially takes advantage of its popularity to bully users into agreeing to terms and conditions they might not understand. The details that users provide help generate the targeted ads that make the company so rich.