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Bundeskartellamt settles legal dispute over VR glasses from Meta
The German cartel authorities were bothered by the fact that the use of the VR glasses was initially only possible with a link to a Facebook account. Now things are different.
The Facebook group Meta can in future offer its virtual reality glasses in Germany without legal restrictions. This emerges from a statement by the Federal Cartel Office published on Wednesday.
In the dispute over the VR glasses, the competition authority initiated abuse proceedings against the meta group, which was then called Facebook, almost two years ago. The cartel guardians were bothered by the fact that the use of the VR glasses was only possible with a link to a Facebook account. The group’s VR glasses Oculus Quest 2 have not been available in Germany since then.
With the change of the group name from Facebook to Meta in October 2021, the brand name Oculus for the glasses was also dropped. Since August 2022, the Quest glasses can also be linked to new meta accounts and no longer just to Facebook profiles. Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office, said on Wednesday that Meta had reacted to the competition concerns of the Federal Cartel Office and is now also offering the option of putting the glasses into operation with a separate account. “This means that the glasses can be sold in Germany. This also applies to the new Quest Pro.”
Users as avatars
For company founder Mark Zuckerberg, VR glasses are an important building block for the Metaverse. On the one hand, this means a digital and interactive environment that can be entered with VR glasses. In it, users can work, play, meet or shop as avatars. However, the metaverse also includes applications in which digital information is displayed in the real field of vision of the user.
A Meta spokesman said they are happy that the VR glasses Meta Quest 2 will come to Germany later this year. “We also plan to bring Meta Quest Pro to the German market as soon as possible.”