European Union: Advocate General issued an opinion recommending dismissal of Meta’s appeal against a previous ruling that upheld European Commission decisions requiring disclosure of internal documents as part of investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct

On 26 February 2026, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued an opinion recommending that the Court dismiss Meta Platforms’ appeal against the General Court’s ruling. These appeals sought to overturn judgments of the General Court which upheld European Commission decisions from 2020 requiring Meta to provide internal documents identified through specific electronic search terms. The Commission's requests were part of an investigation into Meta's alleged abuse of a dominant position concerning its Facebook Marketplace service and its use of Facebook Data. The Advocate General concluded that the General Court correctly assessed the necessity of the requested information and the adequacy of procedural safeguards. Under the relevant competition regulation, the Commission possesses broad investigative powers to request all information necessary for its tasks. The opinion states that the Commission is not required to provide an exhaustive legal assessment of every document at the investigation stage, but must indicate the subject matter and suspected infringement. Advocate General noted that the search terms used were proportionate and that the inclusion of irrelevant documents did not invalidate the requests. Furthermore, the opinion clarified that the Commission may request mixed documents containing personal data without always using a virtual data room, provided the processing serves public interest tasks in competition matters. This opinion is not binding on the CJEU. The CJEU judges will now begin deliberations before delivering a final judgment at a later date.