German competition watchdog assesses Facebook account requirement for Oculus headsets
The German Bundeskartellamt has started an investigation into the link between the VR products of Oculus and the Facebook platform. The immediate cause is the obligation to log in to the Oculus headsets with a Facebook account.
The Bundeskartellamt writes that it has started an abuse procedure to investigate the link between the VR products and the social platform of Oculus with the social media platform of Facebook itself. According to the competition authority, this specifically concerns the future obligation for a Facebook account when people want to use an Oculus product.
When linking Oculus’ VR products to Facebook’s social medium, Facebook may be taking advantage of its dominance in the marketplace, according to the office. The aim of the research is to see whether and what consequences this link has for both the market for social media and the market for VR products. Earlier, a Hamburg data protection supervisor called the account obligation “potentially illegal.”
Facebook announced its requirement to use a Facebook account with upcoming Oculus headsets last summer. Since October, users who are using an Oculus device for the first time have been required to log in with a Facebook account. Users who signed in with an Oculus account with an Oculus headset before October can use their Oculus account until January 1, 2023. On January 1, 2023, Facebook will end support for those accounts, after which functionalities or certain software may stop working. Incidentally, several organizations and developers are working on ways to use the Oculus headsets without a Facebook account.
In the press release, the Bundeskartellamt also discusses another investigation into possible abuse of power by Facebook. This research is about the processing of user data, such as data around Like buttons on external sites. Several lawsuits have now been filed about this; now the case is in the court of Düsseldorf. This case will be discussed further on 26 March.