Berlin Regional Court II: Facebook’s ‘Find Friends’ Function Unlawful
Berlin, February 24, 2026 – The Berlin Regional Court II has declared that Facebook’s ‘Find Friends’ function, which allows users to upload contact data from their devices, is unlawful when it accesses and stores information of individuals who are not registered users of the platform. The ruling (v. 02.12.2025, Az. 15 O 569/18) specifically applies to consumers residing in Germany. Violations could result in a fine of up to 250,000 euros. The judgment is not yet legally binding.
The 15th Civil Chamber partially upheld a lawsuit filed by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) in 2018. The case focused on the platform’s functionality as it existed at that time. The proceedings were protracted due to the need to clarify who is entitled to sue for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Data Storage Without Consent or Benefit
The ‘Find Friends’ feature enables registered Facebook users to upload contact data from their devices, such as mobile phones, to a server. Users can delete this data from their accounts at any time. The uploaded data is primarily used to help others find people or to suggest friends to the user.
The court found this function to be objectionable on data protection grounds. It objected to the storage of data belonging to individuals not registered with Facebook on the company’s servers without their consent. The average consumer, according to the judgment, does not expect “that their data will be specifically collected by social networks despite not being registered with them.”
Furthermore, the Chamber criticized that individuals who do not use Facebook do not benefit from their data being stored there. It also noted that data of people who actively avoid the platform could still end up on Facebook’s servers.
Personalized Advertising Generally Permissible, But…
In the same proceedings, the court also examined other Facebook practices unrelated to the ‘Find Friends’ function. It determined that Meta, among other things, evaluates user activities on Facebook without permission to display personalized advertising.
The Regional Court’s judgment states that even if a social online network can be used free of charge, users “cannot expect that the operator of this social network will process their personal data for the purpose of personalizing advertising without their consent.” However, the court concluded that comprehensive data usage solely for displaying advertising tailored to individual users is not justified. The court assumes that users primarily use Facebook for social interaction, not to view advertisements.
However, the Chamber did not agree with the consumer protection association on all points. The vzbv had sought to prohibit Meta from creating usage profiles of unregistered visitors to Facebook pages. Meta denied that such profiles were created for advertising purposes for unregistered users, and the plaintiff, who explicitly based his application on the creation of usage profiles and not on the setting of cookies, failed to provide counter-evidence.
Implications of the Ruling
The ruling does not immediately change anything for users or non-users. While the court has declared the ‘Find Friends’ practice, as applied at the time of the lawsuit, to be unlawful and has ordered Facebook to cease it, it has not obliged the company to delete already uploaded data. Non-users could previously contact Facebook to find out if personal data was stored on the company’s server. Those who do so in the future can now refer to this first-instance judgment.
The judgment exclusively obliges Facebook operator Meta or its European subsidiary based in Ireland. However, according to the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, the decision has a certain signaling effect, as other social networks sometimes use similar functions.
“When Facebook members activate the ‘Find Friends’ function, contact data is uploaded from their mobile phone to a server of Facebook’s parent company Meta,” says vzbv board member Ramona Pop. The court has now clarified that the processing of data of uninvolved third parties is unlawful. “The judgment shows: Social media platforms cannot simply turn on the data vacuum cleaner,” Pop commented on the decision.
Source: Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), dpa/mk/LTO-Redaktion
