Court Forces Meta to Restore Locked Facebook and Business Accounts
- Meta must restore a marketer's private Facebook profile and connected business accounts after a court found the social media giant blocked access without sufficient justification.
- The legal dispute centers on a marketing agency worker whose private Facebook profile was abruptly disabled by Meta at the end of July without prior warning, explanation, or...
- recht.help reported that the legal team subsequently filed for an einstweilige Verfügung, or temporary injunction, at the Landgericht München I after Meta-Business-Support and the Facebook customer service failed...
Meta must restore a marketer’s private Facebook profile and connected business accounts after a court found the social media giant blocked access without sufficient justification. Lawyer Sven Nelke announced that the Landgericht München I issued a temporary injunction ordering the platform to lift the suspension that began on July 28, 2026.
Landgericht München I Orders Account Restoration
The legal dispute centers on a marketing agency worker whose private Facebook profile was abruptly disabled by Meta at the end of July without prior warning, explanation, or a chance to be heard, recht.help reported. According to the court documents, the platform justified the action solely by citing vague community standards on account integrity without detailing specific violations. When the user submitted an appeal through the automated platform interface within the mandated 180-day window, a rejection arrived almost immediately via an automated response.
recht.help reported that the legal team subsequently filed for an einstweilige Verfügung, or temporary injunction, at the Landgericht München I after Meta-Business-Support and the Facebook customer service failed to provide information or reverse the block. The court established its international jurisdiction under European Union regulations, noting that while the Irish entity Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is based in Dublin, the tortious claims fall under Article 7 No. 2 of the Brussels Ia Regulation because the damage materialized at the applicant’s German residence.
Account Suspensions Freeze Ad Campaigns and Business Tools
As verbraucherschutzforum.berlin reported, platform suspensions targeting connected accounts often extend far beyond personal profiles to freeze active ad campaigns, business portfolios, and client management tools. For marketing professionals, agencies, and online retailers, losing access to the Meta Business Manager or an ad account halts customer acquisition and stops scheduled campaign budgets from running.
recht.help noted that the court explicitly addressed this commercial entanglement in its jurisdictional reasoning, confirming that the applicant used the private profile to manage client advertising and pages as required by Meta’s platform architecture. The court rejected the notion that the contractual relationship bars tortious or competition-law claims when a dominant platform restricts access arbitrarily.
European Digital Services Act Framework
European regulations provide specific procedural safeguards that platforms must follow when restricting user accounts. verbraucherschutzforum.berlin highlighted that Articles 17, 20, and 21 of the Digital Services Act require digital services to provide clear justifications for content moderation or account bans, maintain an internal complaint management system, and allow access to certified out-of-court dispute settlement bodies.
While platforms offer internal review mechanisms, those digital appeals frequently rely on automated rejections rather than meaningful human review. The Munich court’s injunction demonstrates that when automated enforcement leaves users without a genuine path to contest a decision, affected individuals can successfully pursue emergency judicial relief to compel platform compliance.
Court Orders Meta to Pay Legal Costs
The Landgericht München I ordered Meta to bear the full costs of the legal proceedings and fixed the dispute value at 10,000 euros, according to recht.help. The injunction mandates the complete restoration of the account and its associated functions, including the Facebook Messenger, posting capabilities, commenting, sharing, and participation in Facebook groups, pending a final decision in the main proceedings.