The District Court of Düsseldorf Decides on the “Like” Button of Facebook

In a decision made on March 9, 2016 (12 O 151/15), the District Court of Düsseldorf found the position of the Consumer Advice Center of North Rhine-Westphalia in proceedings against the clothes dealer, Peek and Cloppenburg, legally correct. The integration alone of the “like” button on Peek and Cloppenburg’s website had the result that data on the surfing behavior of users, including their IP addresses, were transferred to Facebook by a simple click to the website. Because this happened without the explicit approval of the user, provisions about data protection have been violated. The operating company of the site – here Peek and Cloppenburg - has to be careful about compliance with data protection provisions and cannot pass on its liability to Facebook.