The European Union on Tuesday accused Facebook of providing it with misleading information on its acquisition of messaging platform WhatsApp, Reuters reported. The European Commission said that the United States-based company had implemented a policy change to match user accounts from both services, despite having told competition authorities that it would not have been able to do so.
The Commission said it had sent a statement of objections to Facebook about the accusation, IANS reported. The investigation is only limited to assessing breaches of procedural rules and will not have an overall impact on the acquisition itself, the Commission said. Facebook may have to pay a fine of 1% of its annual turnover if the charges are confirmed.
A Facebook spokesperson said it respected the Commission’s inquiry process. “A full review of the facts will confirm” that the company acted in good faith, the spokesperson said. “We’ve consistently provided accurate information about our technical capabilities and plans, including in submissions about the WhatsApp acquisition.”
While the takeover was approved in 2014, the privacy policy change in August to match user accounts and phone numbers prompted a series of investigations by EU data protection bodies. In November, Facebook paused sharing user data between it and WhatsApp across all EU nations.
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