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The
long-running case, brought by the Federation of German Consumer
Organisations (vzbv), alleged that the social network had
allowed operators of online games to improperly collect the
personal data of people who played them.
Facebook declined to comment on the court statement pending the
release of a full written judgment.
A lower court ruled in favor of the vzbv and Facebook appealed
the decision.
In its written ruling, the Federal Court said it was suspending
the case to seek advice from the European Court as
interpretations of the applicable law varied.
"This question is disputed both in court judgments and in the
literature," the court, based in Karlsruhe, said in a statement.
At issue were online games offered on Facebook's App Center back
in 2012 in which, by playing them, a user automatically agreed
to share personal data including their email address.
At the end of the game, users would see a message saying that
the app could post their status, photos and other information.
Such games - including quizzes - were widely used at the time to
harvest data on users of Facebook. The company subsequently
overhauled its privacy settings, although they have continued to
be a source of controversy.
The European Union's two-year-old privacy rulebook, the General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), stipulates that any requests
to collect personal data should be subject to clear, informed
consent.
However it is not clear, according to the Karlsruhe court,
whether organisations that can bring litigation under national
law have the necessary standing to press their case under the
GDPR. It is seeking clarification on this matter of principle.
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by Jason Neely)
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