In addition to the lawsuits against the Commission, Facebook is also seeking interim measures according to a court filing at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, to halt such broad data requests until a judge’s ruling.
Facebook said on Monday it is asking EU courts to review “exceptionally broad” requests by antitrust regulators there that would scoop up employees’ personal information.
Those documents include “highly sensitive personal information such as employees’ medical information; personal financial documents, and private information about family members of employees.”
Facebook believes such requests should be reviewed by EU courts, according to Lamb, and is asking the court to weigh in on broad search terms such as “applause” or “for free” that could easily be found in personal email messages or other exchanges way beyond the scope of antitrust matters.
Regulatory probes can involve requests for messages or documents bearing certain words or phrases, with those seeking information inclined to cast wide nets and those being queried wanting them narrowly targeted.
