Facebook "Friend Finder" Unlawful: German Courts

German High Court Rules Facebook "Friend Finder" Is Unlawful

Reuters | January 14, 2016

Germany's highest court has declared unlawful a feature that encourages Facebook users to market the social media network to their contacts, confirming the rulings of two lower courts.
A panel of the Federal Court of Justice ruled that Facebook's "friend finder" promotional feature constituted advertising harassment in a case that was filed in 2010 by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV).

Friend Finder requests users’ permission to access the email addresses of contacts in their address book so invitations can be sent to non-Facebook members asking them to join the service.

The court said this was a deceptive marketing practice, confirming two lower Berlin courts’ decisions in 2012 and 2014, which had found that Facebook had violated German laws on data protection and unfair trade practices. The company was also accused by the court of not adequately informing members about how it was using their contacts’ data.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/63491-german-court-rules-facebook-friend-finder-unlawful-calls.html

<more at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-germany-idUSKCN0US27W20160114; related links: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-01/15/facebook-friend-finder-illegal-germany (Facebook Friend Finder ruled unlawful in Germany. January 15, 2016) and http://www.techspot.com/news/63491-german-court-rules-facebook-friend-finder-unlawful-calls.html (German court rules Facebook's 'friend finder' unlawful, calls it "advertising harassment". January 15, 2016)>