"We will now proceed from the fact that Facebook has been abusing its market power in relation to its clients based on how it has gathered and exploited data from third parties," Andreas Mundt told the Rheinische Post daily.
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The federal agency has been conducting a probe into the social network’s market practices since 2016 to determine whether users are sufficiently informed about how Facebook collects their details to help its advertising customers better target them.
Pressure on the US-based company to ramp up privacy measures increased after Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy in London, was found in possession of information of an estimated 87 million people, which it used to help Donald Trump become US president.