The German Facebook case has directly addressed the contentious interplay between data protection and competition law for the first time. The Bundeskartellamt’s theory of harm, which directly linked privacy violations to the strengthening of Facebook’s market power, proved controversial: it elicited strong criticism from the appeals court, but then was partially endorsed by the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Supreme Court). This article shows that an enforcement action against Facebook under Article 102 TFEU need not be controversial. We present empirical evidence confirming that Facebook’s ‘envelopment by privacy policy tying’ strategy exploits consumers, as it causes clear consumer harm on the market for social networks in the form of lack of choice and degradation of quality. In turn, such consumer harm on the ‘free’ side leads to a weakening of the competitive market structure and foreclosure of competitors on the ‘paid’ market for display advertising and other adjacent markets. This strategy falls neatly within the scope of Article 102 TFEU, irrespective of whether it also violates EU data protection law. In addition, the enveloping by privacy policy tying forms part of an overall anti-competitive strategy over which the Commission can assert jurisdiction and prosecute as a single and continuous infringement.

中文翻译：

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Facebook 在社交网络和展示广告的双边市场中的剥削性和排他性滥用

德国 Facebook 案首次直接解决了数据保护和竞争法之间有争议的相互作用。Bundeskartellamt 的损害理论直接将侵犯隐私与增强 Facebook 的市场力量联系起来，但事实证明这是有争议的：它引起了上诉法院的强烈批评，但随后得到了德国联邦最高法院的部分认可。本文表明，根据 TFEU 第 102 条对 Facebook 采取的执法行动不必引起争议。我们提供的经验证据证实，Facebook 的“通过隐私政策捆绑包揽”战略利用了消费者，因为它以缺乏选择和质量下降的形式对社交网络市场造成了明显的消费者伤害。反过来，这种“免费”方面对消费者的伤害导致竞争性市场结构的削弱和竞争者在展示广告和其他相邻市场的“付费”市场上的丧失抵押品赎回权。该策略完全属于 TFEU 第 102 条的范围，无论它是否也违反了欧盟数据保护法。此外，通过隐私政策捆绑包络构成了整体反竞争战略的一部分，委员会可以在该战略上主张管辖权并作为单一和持续的侵权行为进行起诉。