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21
December 2016
Facebook misled the European Union (EU)
regulators over its 2014 takeover of WhatsApp, the EU said on Tuesday. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
"The European Commission has sent a
statement of objections to Facebook alleging the company provided incorrect or
misleading information during the Commission's 2014 investigation under the EU
merger regulation of Facebook's planned acquisition of WhatsApp," Xinhua
news agency quoted the European Commission, the EU's executive body, as saying
in a statement.
According to the statement, Facebook now
has now until January 31, 2017 to respond to the statement of objections. If
the Commission's preliminary concerns in this case are confirmed, the
Commission could impose a fine of up to 1 per cent of Facebook's turnover.
The acquisition announced in February
2014 gained EU approval in October the same year.
When reviewing Facebook's planned
acquisition of WhatsApp, the Commission looked, among other elements, at the
possibility of Facebook matching its users' accounts with WhatsApp users'
accounts.
In its notification of the transaction
in August 2014 and in a reply to a request of information, Facebook indicated
to the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated
matching between the two companies' user accounts. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
However, in August 2016, WhatsApp
announced, among other updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, the
possibility of linking WhatsApp user phone numbers with Facebook user
identities.
WhatsApp explained that this was done
with a view to improving the service by, for example, allowing Facebook to
offer better friend suggestions or displaying more relevant ads on WhatsApp
users' Facebook accounts. The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
In Tuesday's statement of objections,
the Commission took the preliminary view that, contrary to Facebook's
statements and reply during the merger review, the technical possibility of
automatically matching Facebook users' IDs with WhatsApp users' IDs already
existed in 2014.
The Commission said the current
investigation is limited to the assessment of breaches of procedural rules. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
As the Commission's October 2014 decision
to clear Facebook/WhatsApp was based on a variety of factors going beyond the
possibility of matching user accounts, the current investigation will not have
an impact on that decision which remains effective, the Commission added.The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
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