Germany launches new probe of Facebook

BERLIN — German regulators launched an investigation Thursday into Facebook over the company’s decision to link its Oculus virtual reality products to the social network, authorities said.

The Federal Cartel Office, or Bundeskartellamt, said it had initiated abuse proceedings over Facebook’s plans to require users of the latest Quest 2 virtual reality glasses produced by Oculus to register with a Facebook. com account.

“Linking virtual reality products and the group’s social network in this way could constitute a prohibited abuse of dominance by Facebook,” said Bundeskartellamt President Andreas Mundt. “With its social network Facebook holds a dominant position in Germany and is also already an important player in the emerging but growing VR market. We intend to examine whether and to what extent this tying arrangement will affect competition in both areas of activity.”

Facebook said it had already paused sales of its Oculus products in Germany this year. It said the move was not related to the investigation.

Facebook announced this year that all Quest 2 users would require a Facebook login with the device, and that users of other Oculus products could merge their account or continue using the Oculus account until January 2023.

The company, which acquired Oculus in 2014, also rebranded Oculus Connect as Facebook Connect and changed the name of its virtual reality team from Oculus Research to Facebook Reality Labs.

The German investigation comes a day after U.S. regulators sued the social network, accusing it of abusing its market power and seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services.

Last year, the Bundeskartellamt determined Facebook was exploiting its social media dominance to better target ads, forcing users to share data from other Facebook-owned services as well as third-party websites through the “Like” and “Share” buttons.