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#Facebook may have to face-up to massive 1% of turnover fine

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161221facebook12The European Commission sent a Statement of Objections to Facebook (20 December) alleging the company provided incorrect or misleading information to it during its 2014 investigation into Facebook's planned acquisition of WhatsApp.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Companies are obliged to give the Commission accurate information during merger investigations. They must take this obligation seriously. Our timely and effective review of mergers depends on the accuracy of the information provided by the companies involved. In this specific case, the Commission's preliminary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or misleading information."

In today's Statement of Objections, the Commission raises its concern that Facebook intentionally, or negligently, submitted incorrect or misleading information, in breach of its obligations under the EU Merger Regulation. Contrary to Facebook's statement, the Commission holds that they were already aware of the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook users' IDs with WhatsApp users' IDs during the merger review.

As the Commission's decision to clear the Facebook/WhatsApp merger was based on a variety of factors going  well beyond the possibility of matching user accounts, the current investigation will not have an impact on that decision to allow the merger, which remains effective. The current investigation is limited to the assessment of breaches of procedural rules. If Facebook does not produce a convincing response it could face a 1% of turnover fine.

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