Meta loses EU court fight over German antitrust crackdown on data

Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook lost its European Union court fight over a German antitrust order that homed in on the US tech firm’s power to cash-in on a vast trove of users’ data.

The EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Germany’s Federal Cartel Office didn’t overstep its powers in 2019 when it ordered Facebook to overhaul how it tracks its users’ internet browsing and smartphone apps. The move followed a groundbreaking antitrust probe that simultaneously looked into Facebook’s alleged violations of the EU’s strict data protection rules.