And why only Meta? Google's YouTube is brimming over with scam ads. Google is even more liable because it's not simply providing a platform where the scams are posted as content; it's taking money from the scammers and placing their ads.
Google does so knowingly. People are reporting the ads via the provided workflow and describe the scam. Yet the same scams persist. In spite of being informed about scammy advertisers, Google takes their money.
I would say that Facebook do have a valid point if they say that they are not liable for posted scammy content, even that content manipulates their algorithms in order to reach users. Google do not have any similar such defense.
This was civil injunction & damages case. For court to declare judgement against Google (or any other company) someone needs to sue them. That's expensive and people in EU are not nearly as sue-happy as people on other side of Atlantic. Many courts in EU also have loser-pays model so there is huge financial risk in suing huge multinational corporation whose final legal bill might be bigger than person's lifetime earnings. And depending on country they might not even have personal bankruptcy available to discharge that.
This also heavily relies on recent CJEU ruling (WebGroup/Coyote, 16 June 2026, C-188/24) which essentially opened up the E-Commerce Directive's liability shield that platforms have been relying on so far. Essentially it said that that platform's are not necessarily neutral hosting providers when they control the algorithms that determine the dissemination. So I would expect more rulings to come, but it will take time.
Because that's the way courts work. This court only had jurisdiction over Germany. It is possible that other courts with broader jurisdiction would rule similarly, but someone has to bring the case.
From the article: “ The Meta spokesperson also said the company has taken strong action against scam ads, including proactively identifying them and removing reported content.”
This is complete crap, I’ve reported countless scam ads and marketplace offers and they haven’t removed a single one.
It’s in their interest to continue selling ads (even scam ones), as long as they’re getting money into their pockets. Big companies have stopped caring for their users :-(
Why only Germany?
I feel that all countries should be doing something similar.
And why only Meta? Google's YouTube is brimming over with scam ads. Google is even more liable because it's not simply providing a platform where the scams are posted as content; it's taking money from the scammers and placing their ads.
Google does so knowingly. People are reporting the ads via the provided workflow and describe the scam. Yet the same scams persist. In spite of being informed about scammy advertisers, Google takes their money.
I would say that Facebook do have a valid point if they say that they are not liable for posted scammy content, even that content manipulates their algorithms in order to reach users. Google do not have any similar such defense.
Because that's not how any of this works.
Obviously! Please fill in the blanks.
This was civil injunction & damages case. For court to declare judgement against Google (or any other company) someone needs to sue them. That's expensive and people in EU are not nearly as sue-happy as people on other side of Atlantic. Many courts in EU also have loser-pays model so there is huge financial risk in suing huge multinational corporation whose final legal bill might be bigger than person's lifetime earnings. And depending on country they might not even have personal bankruptcy available to discharge that.
This also heavily relies on recent CJEU ruling (WebGroup/Coyote, 16 June 2026, C-188/24) which essentially opened up the E-Commerce Directive's liability shield that platforms have been relying on so far. Essentially it said that that platform's are not necessarily neutral hosting providers when they control the algorithms that determine the dissemination. So I would expect more rulings to come, but it will take time.
Because that's the way courts work. This court only had jurisdiction over Germany. It is possible that other courts with broader jurisdiction would rule similarly, but someone has to bring the case.
From the article: “ The Meta spokesperson also said the company has taken strong action against scam ads, including proactively identifying them and removing reported content.” This is complete crap, I’ve reported countless scam ads and marketplace offers and they haven’t removed a single one. It’s in their interest to continue selling ads (even scam ones), as long as they’re getting money into their pockets. Big companies have stopped caring for their users :-(
GDPR Hub article, contains (machine translated) judgement: https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=LG_Frankfurt_am_Main_-_2-...