Facebook faces legal setback in EU court decision on data privacy and ads

LONDON (AP) — Facebook has lost a legal challenge at the European Union’s top court over a groundbreaking German antitrust decision that limited the way the company uses data for advertising. The European Court of Justice said Tuesday that competition watchdogs can consider whether companies like Facebook comply with the continent’s strict privacy rules, which are normally enforced by national data privacy regulators. The court ruled that antitrust authorities can take into account any violations of data privacy rules as they investigate whether tech giants are abusing their dominance in the market by boxing out competitors. Facebook parent Meta says it’s evaluating the decision.