German Court rules against Facebook Like button

The Consumer Protection Association of North-Rhine Westphalia submitted a formal complaint against the Fashion ID, run by Peek & Cloppenburg. The Düsseldorf District Court in Germany had to rule, whether Peek & Cloppenburg was allowed to have the Facebook Like button on their shopping website. The court decided, that in this case the Facebook Like button was violating German and EU Data Protection Law. The Fashion ID was transferring the gathered information of its consumers to the social media, irrespective of whether the consumer was signed on Facebook or not. Furthermore, it was criticized, that the information of the personal data subject was also transferred to Facebook, without even clicking the Facebook Like button before.

The Court decided, that such a procedure is not compliant with the applicable law. Companies should therefore implement measures, that safeguard the personal data of the consumer and not transfer the gained information to other parties, without the informed consent of the data subject.