German cartel office investigates Facebook for suspected abuse of market power

Germany’s cartel office is investigating Facebook for suspected abuse of market power over breaches of data protection laws in the first formal probe of the social network for violating competition rules.

The watchdog said it suspected Facebook’s terms of service regarding how the company makes use of users’ data may abuse its possibly dominant position in the social networking market.

It planned to examine whether users were properly informed about how their personal data would be obtained by the company.