The European Commission has fined Facebook €110 million
($122 million) for “providing incorrect or misleading information”
about its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp.
In a press release
published Thursday, the Commission said that the social media company
misinformed European regulators when it said that it would be unable to
link the profiles of users on WhatsApp and Facebook. In 2016, however,
WhatsApp announced
that it would begin sharing some user data, including phone numbers,
with Facebook. In its decision, the Commission said that “the technical
possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users'
identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware
of such a possibility.”
The decision announced today will not have any impact on
the Commission’s decision to authorize the acquisition, and it is not
related to separate data protection investigations that are currently
underway, the EC said in its press release. Germany ordered Facebook to stop collecting data from WhatsApp users in September 2016, and Facebook agreed to suspend data collection on UK WhatsApp users in November of that year. This week, WhatsApp was fined €3 million by Italian antitrust authorities for “inducing” users to share data with Facebook. The EC announced its investigation in December 2016.
"Today's decision sends a clear signal to companies that
they must comply with all aspects of EU merger rules, including the
obligation to provide correct information,” Commissioner Margrethe
Vestager said in a statement. “And it imposes a proportionate and
deterrent fine on Facebook. The Commission must be able to take
decisions about mergers' effects on competition in full knowledge of
accurate facts."
In a statement
published to its website Thursday, Facebook said it “acted in good
faith” during its interactions with the European Commission, and that it
“sought to provide accurate information at every turn.” The social
network acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $22 billion.
“The errors we made in our 2014 filings were not
intentional and the Commission has confirmed that they did not impact
the outcome of the merger review,” the statement reads. “Today’s
announcement brings this matter to a close.”
The article was published on : theverge
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