Germany is likely to take antitrust action against Facebook

The head of the country’s antitrust watchdog, Andreas Mundt, has said that he is “very optimistic” that his office will take action against Facebook later this year, reports Reuters. The social media giant has faced extreme scrutiny from European and German lawmakers in the past year due to a host of issues, including the Cambridge Analytic scandal and allegations of unfair competition with rivals.

“We are currently evaluating Facebook’s opinion on our preliminary assessment, and I’m very optimistic that we are going to take further steps, even this year, whatever this would mean,” Mundt told attendees at a conference on competition law in Berlin on Monday.

The worst-case scenario for Facebook in this event is Germany ruling it a monopoly and ordering it to break up–though such action would face years of legal challenges. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the matter and will update this post if we hear back.