The fact that a Facebook account is required to use the Oculus Quest 2 has been a point of contention for many VR fans, and now governments seem to be taking notice. The Federal Cartel Office, which is responsible for investigating and enforcing competition law issues, announced today that it has “initiated abuse proceedings against Facebook in order to investigate the connection between Oculus virtual reality products and the social network and the Facebook platform” .
In essence, it appears that German regulators are concerned that given Facebook’s dominant position in social media and its growing influence in VR, requiring Oculus Quest 2 to tire of Facebook accounts is anti-competitive behavior could be.
“In order to use the new Oculus glasses, the user must also have a Facebook account in future,” said Federal Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt in a statement today. “Linking virtual reality products and the group’s social network in this way could constitute a prohibited abuse of dominance by Facebook. With its social network, Facebook occupies a dominant position in Germany and is already an important player in the up-and-coming, but growing VR (Virtual Reality) market. We want to check whether and to what extent this binding agreement affects competition in both areas of activity. ”
We may not have known the results of the investigation by the Federal Cartel Office for a while, but today the agency also informed us about other current proceedings against Facebook. These proceedings go back to 2019, when the Federal Cartel Office “imposed extensive restrictions” on the processing of user data by the company. In particular, Facebook was prohibited from “collecting and merging user data from various sources in a comprehensive manner”.
After some emergencies on the part of Facebook, the company does not yet need to change the way data is processed. A new court date has been set for the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court on March 26, 2021. Antitrust investigations regarding Oculus and the currently pending lawsuit regarding the way Facebook processes user data. It seems that the Federal Cartel Office has ripped the neck down the neck of the world’s largest social media company. We’ll let you know how it all turns out, so stay tuned to find out more.
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