Facebook wins temporary halt to EU antitrust data demands

The EU started examining Facebook’s sales platform and how it uses data from apps last summer, as part of a broader crackdown on Silicon Valley. — Reuters

Facebook Inc won a temporary halt to requests by European Union investigators to turn over vast amounts of data the social network says includes highly sensitive personal information that’s not needed for antitrust probes.

The EU General Court, the bloc’s second-highest tribunal, suspended the European Commission’s requests for information, according to two decisions dated July 24. The court orders may thwart efforts by EU regulators to build cases into the tech giant’s marketplace ads and how it uses data.

Facebook sued the Brussels-based commission on July 15, citing "the exceptionally broad nature” of the EU’s requests that would force the company "to turn over predominantly irrelevant documents that have nothing to do with the commission’s investigations.”

The EU started examining Facebook’s sales platform and how it uses data from apps last summer, as part of a broader crackdown on Silicon Valley.

The move added to a probe into how Amazon.com Inc collects data from retailers through its platform and investigations into Apple Inc’s app store. Regulators can require companies to give documents mentioning certain keywords under threat of fines. – Bloomberg