European Union: Issued General Court ruling on the legality of Commission request in investigation into Meta Platforms over alleged anti-competitive behaviour

On 24 May 2023, the General Court denied the appeal brought before the Court by Meta, formerly Facebook. In particular, Meta contested the legality and asked the Court to annul the European Commission's request for documents containing sensitive personal data to be sent on a distinct electronic medium to the Commission. The Court stated that the documents must be sent and examined in a secure virtual data room by a select investigation team, with Facebook Ireland's lawyers present for comments or disputes. The Commission's request is part of an investigation into Meta's alleged anti-competitive behaviour. The case addresses the legality of the European Commission's request for certain documents from Meta Platforms Ireland. Meta Platforms raised four pleas, including the Commission's investigation is inadequately defined, the requested documents being unnecessary and unrelated to the investigation, and the request infringing on privacy rights.