In response to years of anti-trust discussions with Germany's Cartel Office, Meta is planning to introduce a more comprehensive overview for users of Facebook and Instagram, according to a recent statement by the regulator. The update aims to improve transparency and give users greater control over their accounts.
Meta's new accounts centre is designed to facilitate users in making an "informed decision" about whether to use Instagram and Facebook accounts in conjunction or separately. A spokesperson for Meta stated, "We have updated the Meta account overview to show more transparently how our services work together and give people more control over these features."
The development comes after the Cartel Office sought to ban Meta (formerly Facebook) from amalgamating user data from different sources without the users' consent back in 2019. This sparked years of legal disputes, with the European Union's top court set to adjudicate the issue in July.
The account management feature offered by Meta is a revision of a previous plan deemed "seriously deficient" by the Cartel Office, for not providing neutral and transparent information to consumers.
The German authority clarified that its recent assessment was based on 2019 standards, and it couldn't rule out the need for more stringent requirements under German competition law.
Germany has been closely scrutinizing Meta after categorizing it as of "paramount significance for competition across markets". This designation gives the regulator more flexibility to restrict the market power of digital companies.
