Facebook accused of misleading EU over WhatsApp deal

The European Commission has accused Facebook of providing misleading or incorrect information during its 2014 investigation into the company’s $19bn planned acquisition of WhatsApp.

When it reviewed the acquisition, the Commission looked at the possibility of Facebook matching its users’ accounts with WhatsApp users’ accounts. Facebook told the EC that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between the two companies' user accounts.

WhatsApp later changed its privacy policy, saying it would share some of its users’ phone numbers with parent company Facebook.

“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.

“In today's Statement of Objections, the Commission takes 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. At this stage, the Commission therefore has concerns that Facebook intentionally, or negligently, submitted incorrect or misleading information to the Commission, in breach of its obligations under the EU Merger Regulation.”

Facebook now has until the end of January next year to respond to the Statement of Objections and could be fined up to 1% of its global turnover.