BRUSSELS: Antitrust authorities may assess whether companies comply with EU data protection rules during their investigations, an adviser to Europe’s top court said on Tuesday, in a case involving Meta Platforms and the German competition agency.

“A competition authority may, in exercising its powers, take account of the compatibility of a commercial practice with the General Data Protection Regulation,” Advocate General Athanasios Rantos at the Court of Justice of the European Union said in a non-binding opinion.

“However, it must take into account any decision or investigation by the competent authority under that Regulation,” he said.

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The case is C252/21 Meta Platforms and others (general conditions of use of a social network).