The lawsuit against Facebook continues in Milan.

On April 4 in Milan, the Civil Court of Appeals will hear the appeal in the case against Facebook, which was found liable for the first time in Italy last summer for unfair competition and copyright infringement regarding the database used by Faround, a geolocation app created in 2012 under the name Facearound by the Milan-based company Business Competence Srl. The Specialized Business Section of the Court of Milan, in its ruling No. 9549 of August 1, 2016, had determined that Facebook’s Nearby application uses the same electronic database as the Faround application. Faround selects data from the Facebook profiles of registered users, organizing and displaying it on an interactive map that indicates the businesses closest to the user’s location, along with reviews and information on discounts and offers. Although this data is not owned by Faround—which, in fact, obtained it by accessing Facebook as an independent developer—the method of its organization possesses a certain degree of originality that allows it to be protected as a database covered by copyright. In fact, “the previous programs developed by Facebook (Facebook Places) and by third parties (Foursquare and Yelp) did not have the same functionalities as Faround: the former was a sort of pager that only allowed users to detect the presence of friends nearby, rather than geolocating businesses near the user, while the others were designed based on logical algorithms that processed data entered by users registered on their respective social networks—not Facebook, which is far more widespread.” Precisely for this reason, Business Competence Srl had accused Facebook of stealing the concept and format of the application by launching its own Nearby, which was identical in content. Furthermore, having been developed in a short time, Nearby also attracted major professional advertisers, engaging in unfair conduct in the form of poaching customers in the advertising business. The Court of Milan, after finding that the functionalities of the two applications were effectively identical and defining them as “overlapping,” ordered Zuckerberg’s company, in the aforementioned ruling, to publicize the decision by publishing it in “Corriere della Sera” and “Il Sole 24 Ore” as well as, for at least fifteen days, on the homepage of facebook.com. It also prohibited any further use of the Nearby app in Italy, imposing a penalty of 45,000 euros for each day of violation of these provisions. However, damages owed to the injured party have not yet been paid. Facebook appealed the decision before the Milan Court of Appeals, which, although it has yet to rule on the appeal, rejected the request to suspend the provisional measure ordered in the first instance.