Tuesday 20 December 2016

Facebook charged with misleading EU over $22 billion WhatsApp takeover | Ars Technica

Facebook charged with misleading EU over $22 billion WhatsApp takeover | Ars Technica: "Brussels' competition officials issued a charge sheet against Facebook on Tuesday, in which it is alleged that the free content ad network failed to disclose that "the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook users' IDs with WhatsApp users' IDs already existed" at the time of the merger.

 Antitrust chief Margerthe Vestager said that companies must provide "accurate information" during routine competition probes into planned acquisitions.

"They must take this obligation seriously," she said. "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. Facebook now has the opportunity to respond."

 Facebook has been slapped with a so-called Statement of Objections by the commission, which claims that the multinational "intentionally, or negligently, submitted incorrect or misleading information" to the competition wing of the EC, thereby allegedly breaching its obligations under the EU Merger Regulation." 'via Blog this'

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