Facebook Hit With Antitrust Probe For Tying Oculus Use To Facebook Accounts (techcrunch.com) 29
Facebook is being investigated in Germany for linking usage of its Oculus VR headset to having a Facebook account. TechCrunch reports: Germany's Federal Cartel Office (aka, the Bundeskartellamt) said today that it's instigated abuse proceedings against Facebook to examine the linkage between Oculus VR products and its eponymous social network. In a statement, its president, Andreas Mundt, said: "In the future, the use of the new Oculus glasses requires the user to also have a Facebook account. Linking virtual reality products and the group's social network in this way could constitute a prohibited abuse of dominance by Facebook. With its social network Facebook holds a dominant position in Germany and is also already an important player in the emerging but growing VR (virtual reality) market. We intend to examine whether and to what extent this tying arrangement will affect competition in both areas of activity."
Reached for comment on the FCO Oculus proceeding, a Facebook spokesperson sent us this statement: "While Oculus devices are not currently available for sale in Germany, we will cooperate fully with the Bundeskartellamt and are confident we can demonstrate that there is no basis to the investigation."
Reached for comment on the FCO Oculus proceeding, a Facebook spokesperson sent us this statement: "While Oculus devices are not currently available for sale in Germany, we will cooperate fully with the Bundeskartellamt and are confident we can demonstrate that there is no basis to the investigation."
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I am getting really tired of seeing all this nasty crap being posted on /.
Is /. actually trying to stop this or not?
Wonder if this violates the GDPR? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they can figure out if this FB account tying violates the GDPR, (General Data Protection Regulation). Even though I am not in a European Union country, some employers in the USA require employees to know something about GDPR. But, I simply have a broad view. Not enough details.
If their is something to find, Germany should be able to find it. AND enforce any settlement.
Of course, the best result, (which will never happen), is breaking apart the 2, FB & Oculus. Even forcing them to be separate companies. That would be ironic, seeing as FB just bought Oculus. Those of us who would never buy something from Oculus that required a FB account, might make a buying surge in their products after such a break up.
Please require hardware to not require clouds (Score:5, Insightful)
Please require that hardware not be required to have internet connectivity to function. So many devices are cloud connected now that are useless if the company who owns the cloud service decides to fold, or is purchased by a competitor.
I'm thinking about all the toys I've bought and were acquired by another:
- Fitbit, bought by google
- Withings, bought by Nokia
- Linksys, bought by Cisco
- previous hard drive vendors folded into Seagate and Western Digital.
Google acquiring fitbit, I'm likely to never buy fitbit again, Google has disappointed me a lot. Even though I've been paying for Stadia and not using it, I'm hoping that when I eventually move to a better apartment, it will be usable.
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Yeah. Different. I can use YouTube and yet Google has no idea who I am. In spite of their nag messages that I should sign up, it still appears to work just fine.
Re:No different from Google and Youtube... (Score:4, Informative)
I hate that you're making me defend Google, but they are different. This is a piece of hardware that people owned and it worked fine and then suddenly it didn't work unless you signed up for Facebook. That's a bait and switch.
Kind of like how Oculus duped all those Kickstarter contributors into funding something that would immediately get sold out to Facebook.
Re: No different from Google and Youtube... (Score:2)
I am not saying that what Oculus did was illegal. I just think it was a shitty thing to do.
Dont forget Microsoft. (Score:2)
Zero chance I'll ever buy Oculus (Score:4, Interesting)
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invention idea (Score:1)
this, is the reason, i cannot uninstall facebook (Score:1)
I canceled 1st Occulus preorder when FB bought 'em (Score:2)
And I made sure I got acknowledgement in writing. Because FB is just that trustworthy.
And sure enough they charged me and shipped. And got that bastard back unopened too.
FB will not have programs on my PC hardware. Not happening. I caught them stealing data of phones with a honey pot, so they're 0% trustworthy in my view.