Facebook has been accused by the European Commission of misleading it during its investigation of the company’s 2014 takeover of WhatsApp.
The Commission says Facebook misled it when the company said it was impossible to match users’ Facebook and WhatsApp accounts.
But in August, WhatsApp said it would do just that, by linking users’ phone numbers with their Facebook identities.
Facebook said it had nothing to hide and had acted in good faith.
The Commission believes the ability to link the accounts of the two services’ users must have existed in 2014, though this is vigorously disputed by Facebook.
If the Commission concludes that it was definitely misled, either by accident or design, it could fine Facebook up to 1% of its turnover, which would amount to hundreds of millions of euros.
“Companies are obliged to give the Commission accurate information during merger investigations,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy,
“In this specific case, the Commission’s preliminary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or misleading information during the investigation into its acquisition of WhatsApp.”
BBC
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